Sidhu ruffles feathers of Gurdaspur Congmen with his rebuke of Randhawa

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, October 9

Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu’s rebuke of Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa in the presence of AICC general secretary Harish Rawat, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Rahul Gandhi during a public meeting held recently has boomeranged.

Randhawa, who is a MLA from Dera Baba Nanak, which forms a part of Gurdaspur district, is among the two tallest leaders of the area, the other being his Cabinet colleague Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa.

His clout, influence and following are well known and commands unstinted loyalty. The net effect of all this is that his supporters have now decided to boycott Sidhu.

Congressmen point out that Sidhu’s act of censuring his colleague was akin to ‘shooting the messenger’.

“Randhawa was just handing him Rawat’s message to cut short his extempore because he had taken up more time than what was allotted to him. Instead of being an obedient soldier of the party, Sidhu, without any reason, started venting his ire on Randhawa. Instead of abiding, he inadvertently shot the messenger. This was an unsavoury incident, which should have been avoided more so because the proceedings were telecast live,” said Tript Bajwa.

What has ruffled feathers of Congressmen is the rustic language Sidhu used. Moments later, the video of the incident went viral.

Randhawa had played a pivotal role in bringing Sidhu and his wife into the Congress fold just before the 2017 Assembly polls. “Never bite the hand that feeds you. Sidhu should have shown due respect to a seasoned politician like Randhawa,” said Qadian MLA Fateh Jung Bajwa.

People close to Randhawa know that he is temperamental in nature and at times unpredictable too. “During the stone laying ceremony of Kartarpur corridor in November 2018, he had the audacity to question the tone and tenor of Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s speech in the presence of Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu. We are amazed as to how he managed to restrain himself during Sidhu’s diatribe,” said his Cabinet colleague.

“Sidhu got annoyed when the Chief Minister changed his ministry. In cricket, do you get angry when your captain changes your fielding position?” asked Fateh Bajwa.

Former Batala MLA Ashwani Sekhri, too, castigated Sidhu. “We are public figures. Hence we should conduct ourselves with dignity when we are among the public, a trait clearly missing in Sidhu.”

Opposition leaders were cock-a-hoop the moment the video went viral. “There is something drastically wrong with Sidhu and his mannerism. He makes a laughing stock of himself whenever he speaks. It was good riddance for us when he left our party. Else, he would have made all of us a butt of the joke,” said a sitting BJP MLA.

On his part, Randhawa chose to play down the incident. “Let bygones be bygones. In political functions, particularly in the heat of the moment, such things happen. Let us move ahead in life,” he said.