When Sidhu made Manmohan, Sonia smile

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 18

Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Sidhu stole the show on the concluding day of the AICC plenary on Sunday with his theatrical interventions which left even former PM Manmohan Singh smiling.

Known for his reticence, Manmohan Singh was nudged by Sonia Gandhi to react to Sidhu’s interesting take on the economic resolution proposed by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

After holding back for a while, the ex-PM finally laughed, as did Sonia Gandhi and the entire gathering.

In his trademark style, Sidhu used verse and original turn of phrase to target BJP and laud the Congress.

“While the BJP looks tall and mighty from the outside, it is hollow like bamboo from the inside. Rahul Gandhi, on the other hand, is sugar inside out,” said the former Amritsar MP who predicted that Rahul Gandhi would unfurl the Tricolour from the Red Fort in 2019 and pledged to make this happen.

The surprise remark from Sidhu was his public confession that he came to the Congress on the insistence of Priyanka Gandhi. “I was cocooned in my meditative shell till Priyanka came along and I felt reassured that India can change. I have the utmost respect for her,” said Sidhu.

Sidhu didn’t mention CM Capt Amarinder even once in his speech that energised an otherwise dull gathering fed on a heavy dose of discussions on economy and foreign policy.

Sidhu’s pet remark “thoko taali” followed every statement he made. On the BJP, Sidhu said “it had eaten into the vitals of the nation”. Finance Minister Manpreet Badal was among the panellists during a talk on jobs.