During India’s cricket tour of England in 1996, Navjot Singh Sidhu walked out of the series midway and returned home. He was angry with captain Mohammad Azharuddin for using a ‘slur’ while calling out to him on the field. It later turned out that Sidhu had misunderstood Azharuddin’s use of a Hyderabadi slang. Sidhu was let off lightly, and was back in the team six months later.
For the past two months and more, the cricketer-turned-commentator-turned-politician had been relentless in his onslaught against another captain—Captain Amarinder Singh. On Twitter and offline, he held the Punjab chief minister responsible for the power woes in the state and the setback in the probe into the alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015. He said he was campaigning against the “system”, represented by Amarinder and the Badals. He accused Amarinder of letting the Badals go scot-free in the sacrilege matter and called him a liar.
If after the England series in 1996, he was at least banned for 50 days, in the political arena, he was promoted after what looks like an act of indiscipline—publicly berating his own chief minister. A cursory look at the developments gives the impression that the Congress leadership, by appointing Sidhu as its Punjab unit president, has not only condoned his attacks on Amarinder but also rewarded him. Amarinder, on the other hand, appears to have been snubbed. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who was instrumental in bringing Sidhu into the Congress in 2016, is said to have backed him to the hilt.
A deeper analysis, however, reveals hard-nosed political calculations that took into account several factors, from the ground situation to the chief minister’s political stock and Sidhu’s positioning as a rebel with a cause. The Gandhis have also succeeded in asserting themselves in the face of the growing influence of the satraps.
The discussions the Congress high command had with state leaders over the last two months revealed that the problems were much bigger than just an Amarinder vs Sidhu fight. Legislators and ministers were concerned about the impact of the sacrilege issue on the party’s poll prospects. The Amarinder regime has been facing questions about unkept promises concerning the sacrilege issue, drugs menace, unemployment and free power supply.
A party leader said that it is not just the government but also MLAs who are facing anti-incumbency. This is precisely why the issues raised by Sidhu resonated with leaders cutting across factions.
In this backdrop, Sidhu, who had been in hibernation since he quit the Amarinder cabinet in 2019 after being stripped off key portfolios, sprang back to life. He had been waiting for an opportunity to hit back at the chief minister. He projected himself as an anti-establishment hero waging a crusade to protect faith and public welfare. Any action against him would have only helped him emerge as a martyr. There was also the danger of the maverick Amritsar East MLA joining the Aam Aadmi Party to set up a delectable Amarinder vs Sidhu contest in the 2022 elections.
The party leadership felt that promoting Sidhu would take the attention away from the perceived failures of the state government. Also, Punjab, as the epicentre of the farmers’ agitation against the three contentious farm laws, has emerged as a challenge for political parties. The people, especially in rural areas, are viewing conventional parties with distrust, making it difficult for leaders to reach out to them. In such a scenario, Sidhu, viewed as an outlier, could have greater acceptability.
Captain and the player: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra with Navjot Singh Sidhu and Amarinder Singh at an election rally in 2019 | PTI
“The party high command has taken an absolutely correct decision,” said cabinet minister Charanjit Singh Channi. “They have gone by what the people want. Earlier, we had demanded that Amarinder Singh ji be made the Punjab Congress Committee chief because that was the demand of that time. Now, the demands are different.”
Sidhu has come a long way from being the shy, reticent cricketer who let his bat do the talking. He revealed his loquacious side post-retirement as a commentator, and later became a popular fixture on comedy shows on TV. In politics, too, his facility with language and his ability to come up with catchy one-liners or ‘Sidhuisms’ made him a crowd-puller.
“Sidhu is a larger-than-life personality,” said political scientist Harjeshwar Pal Singh. “He is hugely popular and is seen as non-corruptible. He is a Jat Sikh who is acceptable to Hindus since his mother was Hindu. He has charisma and can sway crowds. And in the present circumstances, his image as a rebel could help his party.”
However, Sidhu also has the image of being individualistic and unpredictable. His critics say he is not a team player. They point out that he quit the BJP in 2016 because the party gave his Amritsar seat to Arun Jaitley in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He is believed to have been in discussions with the AAP before political consultant Prashant Kishor, who was helping Amarinder in his campaign for the 2017 state elections, convinced him to join the Congress. Since his entry into the Congress was facilitated by the Gandhis, he had expected to be made deputy chief minister. However, he felt side-lined by Amarinder as he was given a low-key portfolio in the cabinet reshuffle.
Sidhu has been the enfant terrible of the Congress. He was criticised for doing TV shows as a minister. His controversial visits to Pakistan were publicly criticised by the chief minister. Besides, according to Harjeshwar, Sidhu is seen as an elitist and he does not have a rapport with the MLAs. Moreover, there are several leaders who feel Sidhu has got what was rightfully theirs. “His problem is that he does not have a team,” said Harjeshwar. “Pargat Singh was the only MLA supporting him till recently. Of course, now there are several MLAs who are supporting him.”
Sidhu is now trying to blunt the criticism about not being a team player. He is meeting MLAs, ministers and former PCC chiefs, posing for group photos with them and feeding them cake and sweets. Also, he has tried to get rid of the ‘non-Congressi’ tag. He released a photo of his father, who was a Congress leader, with former prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
However, getting Amarinder on board will be a huge ask. Amarinder had till the very end resisted Sidhu’s elevation. Moreover, he did not even get a say in the choice of the four working presidents appointed alongside Sidhu. His demand for a public apology from Sidhu for the damaging remarks against him, too, remains unfulfilled.
While the central leadership has stated that the party will go into the polls under Amarinder’s leadership, it is quite evident that Sidhu is being projected as his successor. It is also believed that there is a message for other regional satraps, especially Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who has been embroiled in a power tussle with his former deputy Sachin Pilot—the party high command is still supreme.
Sukhwinder Singh Danny Bandala, one of the new working presidents, said political rivalries are not a new thing in Punjab Congress, but the party has in the end always fought unitedly in elections. “The vast political experience of Amarinder Singh ji and the popularity of Sidhu ji will bode well for us in 2022,” he said.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders say Amarinder cannot be written off just yet. The veteran leader had sprung a surprise on his detractors by using the local body poll victory earlier this year to declare himself as the CM face for the 2022 polls. He had engaged the services of Kishor to design the election strategy for him. However, going by Kishor’s style of functioning—he believes in a presidential style of campaign—it is unclear whether there will be a repeat of Amarinder’s projection as ‘Punjab Da Captain’, since Sidhu has been projected as an alternative leader. Kishor is learnt to have conveyed to the party leadership that the two leaders must present a united face.
That will not be easy since Amarinder is clearly unhappy with the manner in which the changes were brought about by the party high command. He has still not congratulated Sidhu and a photo-op of the two leaders together is yet to happen. The battle-hardened Amarinder cannot be expected to give up easily and will draw a hard bargain in selection of candidates. Moreover, he is by default the chief minister under whom the party will go into polls.
“He commands resources and the official set-up. He has unparalleled political experience,” said a party leader. “And in the event of the party falling short of majority, he can muster support.”
While Sidhu has got what he wanted, the journey from here on promises to be anything but easy.