After an almost four-year hiatus, the Sidhus have again kicked up a storm in Punjab politics.
Navjot Kaur Sidhu, the former Amritsar East MLA and wife of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, stirred the pot last Saturday with her comment that they did not have “Rs 500 crore to give just to sit in the CM’s chair”. This rankled the Congress more than its opponents, with the party suspending her on Monday and a party colleague initiated legal action against her.
“We always speak for Punjab and Punjabiyat… we don’t have Rs 500 crore to give just to sit in the CM’s chair. No party has demanded money from us, but whoever gives a Rs 500 crore suitcase becomes CM,” she said after meeting Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria to discuss the state’s “law and order”.
Though Kaur on Tuesday clarified that her statement was “distorted” and that she was only questioning “internal corruption in the Congress”, the subsequent controversy brought into focus one aspect of the Sidhus’ public life: their tendency to take on their own party and not tow the conventional political line.
“I am cancer-free now, but am still taking immunotherapy. But I am back in politics to serve the people,” Kaur said Tuesday in Patiala, adding she was not in talks with “anyone”. Adding a layer of intrigue to the issue, her husband arrived in Amritsar on Wednesday and held meetings with his supporters at his residence.
Despite being suspended from the Congress and AICC Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa sending her a legal notice a day later over her allegations of “ticket sale in Rajasthan”, Kaur has continued her attacks on the party leadership.
She has accused state Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of “protecting him” in the recent SC/ST case registered over remarks made during the Tarn Taran Assembly bypoll campaign.
Warring responded by saying seats are “neither sold nor bought” in the Congress. “The high command knows the truth irrespective of what statements are being made. Such statements are scripted elsewhere to divert people’s attention away from the blatant abuse of law and police by the AAP government,” he said.
Though Kaur has claimed she remains “fundamentally loyal” to the Congress and enjoys the support of “more than 90% of the AICC as well as 70% of the state Congress”, her remarks have driven a wedge between her and the party at a time when it is trying to get its act together in the state and challenge the AAP, whose spokesperson Neel Garg asked how a party such as the Congress, ridden with factionalism, could safeguard the state’s interests.
Who is Navjot Kaur Sidhu?
A gynaecologist by profession, Kaur’s political trajectory has been unconventional. Just ahead of the 2012 Assembly polls, she resigned from Rajindra Medical College and Hospital to join the BJP and successfully contested from Amritsar East.
Despite being a newcomer to politics, she was appointed Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) for Health and Family Welfare by the BJP-Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government with Cabinet rank. Her tenure as CPS was marked by dramatic interventions, including a sting operation she carried out against government doctors engaged in private practice.
As an MLA, Kaur was vocal against the BJP and publicly targeted then state BJP chief Kamal Sharma. She also went on a hunger strike against her own government, accusing it of not releasing funds for her constituency.
She also warned the BJP that she would quit the party if it continued its alliance with the SAD for the 2017 Assembly polls. She eventually quit the BJP in 2016, months after her husband, and joined the Congress.
The BJP used the issue to target the Congress, with state unit chief Sunil Jakhar, a former Congressman, saying “he always knew this but is hearing the accusations from the horse’s mouth”. “The Congress has many criteria to make people eligible for becoming CM… I failed in the preliminary round, but Sidhu passed it,” he said.
BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh also took aim at the Congress. “Kaur has revealed a shocking truth. This exposes how the Congress, under Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, is auctioning Constitutional and democratic positions. It is a grave misfortune for democracy,” he said.
Sidhu’s political journey
Kaur’s political journey is similar to that of her husband. He joined the BJP in 2004, won the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat twice (2004 and 2009), and fell out with the BJP after being denied a ticket in 2014. Sidhu was made a Rajya Sabha MP in April 2016 but resigned three months later from the House as well as the BJP.
“Sidhu earned fame through cricket, commentary and television shows. He is a good politician, but one needs to take everyone along in an organisational set-up. While in the BJP, he had certain issues with SAD leaders and not with the BJP. Since the BJP and SAD had an alliance, those conflicts eventually pushed him to leave the party,” a senior BJP leader said on condition of anonymity.
He joined the Congress just ahead of the 2017 polls, won Amritsar East, and became a minister in the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Cabinet, holding portfolios such as Tourism and Local Bodies. As his relations with Amarinder soured, he was divested of the portfolios and handed the Power department in June 2019, but he refused to take charge and resigned a month later from the Cabinet.
Even as his friction with the Congress continued, Sidhu was appointed Punjab Congress chief in July 2021. Weeks later, as Amarinder was replaced by Charanjit Singh Channi as CM, Sidhu, who was seemingly eyeing the post, resigned as state chief in September 2021. His resignation was not accepted, but following the Congress’s rout in the 2022 Assembly polls, in which the party won only 18 of 117 seats, Sidhu was relieved of his duties and replaced by Warring.
Since then, Sidhu has stepped back from politics and returned to cricket commentary and television. “He is away from all this and never interferes in anything, and is busy with commentary. We have to earn money to run the house,” Kaur said.