Problems of Congress in Punjab go much beyond Amarinder-Sidhu clash

Amarinder's supporters feel he is dealing with a reset in his ties with high command

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS R Till a few months back, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh appeared to have had the better of his opponents, both within and outside his party. He drew confidence from the Congress's landslide victory in the local body polls. The farmers' issue had dealt a blow to the Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Aam Aadmi Party was a much weakened force.

So confident was Amarinder that soon after the local body results were out, the state Congress began a campaign for next year's Assembly elections called 'Captain for 2022'. It was a perfect opportunity for the veteran leader to pre-empt his detractors, especially Navjot Singh Sidhu.

However, a court order in April changed the scenario dramatically. On April 9, the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the reports of the special investigation team set up by the Amarinder government to probe the police firing in 2015 in Kotkapura on people protesting against alleged sacrilege of Sikh religious scriptures.

The sacrilege issue is an emotive one for Punjab, and it was a major election plank for the Congress in 2017. Three incidents of alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib had been reported in Faridkot district in 2015. In the subsequent protests, two people had died in police firing.

The court order proved to be a turning point for Amarinder. It energised his detractors. If Sidhu has been the most vociferous, his statements have found resonance with several other Amarinder baiters in the state Congress, such as Pargat Singh, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Pratap Singh Bajwa, Shamsher Singh Dullo and ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Charanjit Singh Channi. There is anxiety even among Amarinder’s supporters about the impact of the court judgment.

The maverick Sidhu, lying low for several months, is back with a bang. The captain's calm confidence has been upset by the renewed onslaught from the cricketer-turned-politician, although the problems of the party go much beyond the battle royale between the two Sardars from Patiala.

Amarinder had not been in favour of Sidhu being brought into the party on the eve of the 2017 Assembly elections. Amarinder saw Sidhu as a potential challenger. It was not lost on him that Sidhu aspired to succeed him since it was felt that the veteran could soon be hanging up his boots.

However, Amarinder cut the Amritsar East MLA down to size, giving him low-profile portfolios in his cabinet. Amid a furore over Sidhu hugging the Pakistan Army chief Qamar Ahmed Bajwa at the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan in August 2018, Amarinder had publically objected against it. When that same year in November, Sidhu visited Pakistan again, Amarinder said he had asked him not to go there in view of the terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

Amarinder went on to further downgrade Sidhu in his cabinet, taking away the local government portfolio from him. The poor performance of the party in urban areas in the Lok Sabha polls was cited as a reason. Sidhu resigned from the cabinet in July 2019 and went into a sulk. However, the party high command was keen that he be brought back into the mainstream.

AICC general secretary Harish Rawat managed to bring Sidhu on board in the protests led by former party chief Rahul Gandhi against the new farm laws in October 2020. As the central leadership nudged the two leaders to end their mutual hostilities, Amarinder hosted Sidhu at his farmhouse near Chandigarh in November 2020, the luncheon meeting setting off speculation about Sidhu's return to the cabinet. There was another meeting between the two in March this year, this time over tea, but there was no breakthrough. Sidhu was said to be dissatisfied with the portfolios offered to him, and Amarinder was against giving him any high-profile role.

Sidhu has hit back after the court order. He said Amarinder was a liar and accused him of helping the Badals in the sacrilege case. He said Amarinder was the 'system' against which he was agitating.

The power tussle got keener as Sidhu shifted to his ancestral house in Patiala, in an apparent dare to the chief minister. Posters came up in the city, declaring Sara Punjab Sidhu de Naal (Entire Punjab is with Sidhu). The Amarinder camp responded by putting up posters saying Captain Te Ek Hi Honda Hai (There can be only one captain). The verbal warfare saw Amarinder daring Sidhu to contest from Patiala, and Sidhu responding with the idiom 'big boast, small roast'.