Sidhu back on warpath with Amarinder, attacks govt for ‘weak’ defence of desecration probe

Sidhu puts out 13-minute video asking why ‘inconsequential people were being made scapegoats and ministers protected’ after high court quashed Punjab Police probe.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had their last 'reconciliation meeting' in March | Photo: ANI

Chandigarh: Former Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh are again at loggerheads, with the ex-cricketer taking on the government over its “lackadaisical approach” in defending its investigation of the Guru Granth Sahib desecration cases.

Sidhu expressed his ire after the Punjab and Haryana High Court, last Friday, quashed the Punjab Police’s investigation into a case related to police firing on Sikh agitators protesting against the desecrations.

In a 13-minute video message issued Tuesday morning from the Gurdwara Burj Jawahar Singh Wala in Faridkot, where the first case of desecration was reported in June 2015, Sidhu questioned why “weak lawyers” were hired to defend the investigation in court despite the “ultimate significance” of the cases and their emotional value for Sikhs.

“Inconsequential people are being made scapegoats. A person who carries out a wrong order is not the culprit, but the one who gives the order… The king and the minister who gave orders have been protected and fortified,” Sidhu said.

“It will be six years in June since the first incident of desecration took place here but there is still no justice in the matter… Why were weak advocates defending the government? Why weren’t a battery of the country’s top lawyers present in the court to defend our investigation,” he added.

The desecrations of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book considered to be a living Guru by Sikhs, took place in 2015 when Parkash Singh Badal headed a Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government. After the Punjab Police failed to nab the culprits, the Badal government handed over the investigation to the CBI. When Amarinder Singh and the Congress came to power in 2017, they withdrew the investigation from the CBI and constituted a special investigative team to probe the desecrations and related cases.

Failed reconciliation 

Sidhu’s lashing out at the Amarinder government brings the two leaders back on the warpath after Congress’ Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat’s six-month-long attempts to reconcile them.

Sidhu had resigned from Amarinder’s cabinet in July 2019 after the CM stripped him of key portfolios, purportedly because of his poor performance as a campaigner in the Lok Sabha elections.

Beginning last year, Rawat had organised a series of meetings between the leaders, of which the last was held on 18 March. This had given rise to speculation about Sidhu rejoining Amarinder’s cabinet.

Sources among the Punjab Congress brass say Amarinder was “taking his own sweet time” in deciding which portfolios to give Sidhu.

“Sidhu was patiently waiting for his induction but obviously he thinks that he is being taken for a ride and Amarinder probably has no intention of keeping his promise. Hence, the calculated move to take on Amarinder on desecration, which remains a touchy political issue in Punjab even six years later,” the Congress source said.

“If Sidhu is not part of the government, then his political future depends solely on taking on not just the opposition, but also Amarinder,” the source added.

Praise for IGP removed from SIT by high court

In his video message, Sidhu also praised Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, a member of the SIT set up by the Amarinder government to probe the two incidents of police firing on Sikh protesters in wake of the sacrilege incidents in October 2015. Two Sikh youth were killed during the firing at Behbal Kalan.

The high court in its Friday order has asked the Punjab government to reconstitute the SIT without Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh as a member. One of the accused in the case had asked the court for his removal on the grounds that the officer was “biased” and investigating the incidents in a “politically motivated” direction.

The IGP had been investigating the firing cases since October 2018, and his team submitted nine challans in the lower courts where these cases are being tried.

However, Sidhu related his personal experience of dealing with Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh in his constituency Amritsar to highlight his competence and that of the Punjab Police.

He told the story about the theft of his friend’s wallet in Amritsar many years ago, when Singh was the police commissioner — the police team found the wallet in a matter of hours.

“Punjab police is a competent (force), but only where there is a will, there will be a way,” said Sidhu.

He also demanded that the IGP’s report of the investigation be made public.

Amarinder rejects IGP’s resignation

Following the high court order, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh had submitted his resignation to the chief minister with a request that he be allowed to take early retirement from the Indian Police Service.

But Tuesday, Amarinder rejected the resignation, saying Punjab needs the services of competent, skilled and efficient officers like him in the border state.

Punjab CM @capt_amarinder has declined the plea of IPS Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh for premature retirement from service. Says services of the competent, skilled & efficient officer are needed in the border state. pic.twitter.com/Zc7NuhHVzy

— Raveen Thukral (@RT_MediaAdvPbCM) April 13, 2021

The CM added that his government will challenge the high court’s decision in the Supreme Court.

(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)