In Congress camp, Sidhu says he’s come back home

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 16

With less than three weeks to go for the Punjab Assembly elections, former BJP stalwart Navjot Singh Sidhu formally joined the Congress today. He will contest from the Amritsar East seat on the party ticket and file his nomination on January 18.

“I am a born Congressman and this is my homecoming. I am back to my roots. This is ghar wapsi for me,” Sidhu said at the Congress headquarters today after AICC Punjab incharge Asha Kumari inducted him into the party. He had met party vice-president Rahul Gandhi yesterday.

While the former cricketer cited his late father’s association with the Congress as an MLA and office-bearer to buttress his “back to the roots” remarks, he quoted characters from the Ramayana to defend his desertion of the BJP.

“They (BJP) say Sidhu used to call the party his mother. Yes, but even Kaikai was a mother. She exiled her son, divesting him of his roots. Kaushalya mata called him back. And on whose insistence did Kaikai act? On Manthara’s insistence. Everyone in Punjab knows who Manthara is,” said the 53-year-old, comparing the BJP to Kaikai, the Congress to Kaushalya and the Akali Dal to Manthara.

Sidhu banked on his trademark theatrics to deflect all uncomfortable queries today, including whether he could work with Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh, having earlier proposed the latter’s exit from the party as a precondition for joining the Congress.

“I can work under anybody to rid Punjab of the Badals, who have converted the land of the Green Revolution into a land of chitta (drugs). If Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar can work together, if two nations can resolve differences across the table, everyone can,” he said, explaining his delayed call on the Congress as a natural process of evolution in which everything takes time.

On questions about his political opportunism, considering he parleyed with AAP for long before joining the Congress, Sidhu remained dismissive, saying that he had never bargained and that the fight for Punjab “is not personal but one of redemption of the state’s dignity”.

“Even AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal said Sidhu was ready to join unconditionally. I have never asked anyone for anything. But he (Kejriwal) said you can’t fight the elections. How could I help Punjab without fighting the elections? So, the Congress was the only other alternative,” said Sidhu, vowing to expose the Badals who, he said, had converted Punjab into a private family fiefdom.

Targeting Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, he said the Badals had put a begging bowl in Punjab’s hands by raising its financial debt to lakhs of crores.