Union minister and Punjab BJP chief Vijay Sampla on Thursday attacked cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, for his wife’s decision to join the Congress, saying he has “bowed in the court” of Rahul Gandhi, whom he had once ridiculed as ‘Pappu’.
He also accused Sidhu of ditching Prime Minister Narendra Modi in making India ‘Soney ki chidia’ and becoming ‘Sonia ki chidia’.
Yesterday, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh had announced that Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu along with former hockey Olympian Pargat Singh would be joining the party on November 28.
Congress sources had also said that Sidhu was also likely to meet the party leadership in the days to come and join along with his wife and Pargat Singh on November 28.
Kaur and Pargat were members of ‘Awaaz-e-Punjab’, an outfit formed by Sidhu along with the Bains brothers Simarjit and Balwinder Singh.
“Sidhu, who once used to ridicule Congress vice president (Rahul Gandhi) by calling him ‘Pappu’, has today bowed down in his court.
The person, who used to claim that he will always standby for the interests of Punjab without fear of any loss or gain, today has joined the same bandwagon of thieves which according to him was rallying behind an honest PM (Manmohan Singh),” Sampla said.
“Sidhu, who once was standing alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring back the glorious past of this country and make it ‘Soney ki chidia’ (golden bird), has ditched him and has become ‘Sonia ki chidia’ (Sonia’s bird) instead,” he added.
Continuing his attack, Sampla said he remembers in 2014, during Haryana Assembly elections, while addressing a rally in Yamunanagar Sidhu he had said that he will never “bow down” in front of people who have changed our Loktantra (democracy) into Gunda tantra (a system of goons) during the previous 60 years. “But today, he has even belied his promise and sold his soul for petty political gains.”
“Sidhu had claimed that he was being kept away from Punjab by the BJP, but the fact is, he had not put his steps in the state after July,” he said, adding that it would have been different if he would have floated his own outfit.
Quoting one of Sidhu’s couplets, he said “I would like to quote his sher here ‘Tara tootey to zameen par nahi tikta, aur samandar kabhi darya me nahi girta’ (a star does not hold onto the ground after falling from sky and never does the ocean fall into a river).
“But today, Sidhu’s star has fallen on the ground and his ocean will now flow into the river,” he added.
CONG ‘ONE FAMILY, ONE TICKET’ RULE: NAVJOT SIDHU FOR LOK SABHA, WIFE FOR PUNJAB ASSEMBLY?
Since the Congress has announced that it would follow the ‘one family, one ticket’ rule for distribution of tickets in Punjab, it may try to humour the Sidhus the way it has other power couples of the state — husband MP, wife MLA.
When Punjab Congress president Amarinder won the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in 2014, his wife Preneet Kaur contested and won the bypoll from Patiala, the seat vacated by Amarinder. When Preneet represented Patiala thrice as MP, Amarinder was MLA.
The musical chairs worked for the Bajwas too. When Partap Singh Bajwa was Lok Sabha MP, his wife Charanjit Kaur Bajwa contested from the assembly seat of Qadian to become MLA. After Bajwa lost to BJP’s Vinod Khanna from Gurdaspur parliamentary seat in 2014 and Amarinder later waged an open revolt against him to get th Punjab chief’s chair from him, Bajwa was made Rajya Sabha MP.
Former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, according to Congress sources, may also finally join the Congress and contest the bypoll for the Amritsar LS seat. It would ensure the new power couple in Congress too gets to follow Congress way of maintaining good “Centre-state” relations.
