Farmers Movement Archive

Capt, Sidhu bond over tea, discuss latter’s return to Punjab cabinet

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu met over tea on Wednesday and talked about the latter’s re-induction into the state cabinet. The 40-minute meeting between the chief minister and Sidhu was held at the former’s farmhouse in Siswan village near here. The two leaders discussed the contours of the cricketer-turned-politician’s return to the state cabinet, and the likely portfolio, but no time-frame was finalised, according to sources in the know of the discussion at the meeting. Their meeting was a result of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and Punjab affairs in-charge Harish Rawat’s unrelenting efforts for rapprochement between the two to pave the way for an important role for the Amritsar East MLA ahead of the state assembly polls due early next year. Rawat had met Amarinder and Sidhu separately in Chandigarh last week and sounded hopeful of “positive developments soon” amid talk of behind-the-scene efforts by the central leadership to reinduct the former minister’s into the state cabinet as the deputy chief minister or as the state unit president. While neither leader spoke to journalists after the meeting, the chief minister’s media adviser Raveen Thukral posted a photograph of the two on Twitter with a cryptic caption – “A picture is worth a thousand words…” Sports minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, who travelled with Sidhu to the chief minister’s farmhouse and was present during their discussion, said the meeting was warm and cordial. “Both Patialvis hugged each other and talked frankly. The impression I got from their discussion is that there is no difference in their thought process and they are united,” he said, adding, “they talked about several things but not on cabinet or portfolios”. Wednesday’s meeting between the chief minister and his former cabinet colleague, who were not on the best of terms for a long time, was second in four months. Amarinder had invited Sidhu for lunch but the programme was changed due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with all the chief ministers on Covid-19. Their luncheon meeting on November 25 last year had set off talk of his cabinet return and likely portfolios but Amarinder later brushed it aside by accusing people of “making a mountain out of a molehill”. Rawat, who is pushing for Sidhu’s return at the earliest, did not respond to calls. Earlier in the day, the former minister’s wife, Navjot Kaur Sidhu, was not very hopeful about the outcome of his meeting with the chief minister. “All this talk of giving him (Sidhu) an important responsibility has been going on for almost two years. We will talk about this when it is done,” she told reporters after being appointed the All India Jat Mahasabha’s state women wing president. She said that Sidhu was not hankering after any position but only wanted to serve the people of Punjab. “If he was after position, he would have contested form Kurukshetra (Lok Sabha seat) as the BJP candidate and become a Union minister. But he did not want to leave Punjab. If he gets something where he can work for the state, he will take it, otherwise we are fine this way,” the ex-MLA said. Sidhu had quit the state cabinet in July 2019 after the CM divested him of the local government portfolio, blaming his “inept handling” of the department and for the poor performance of the party in urban pockets during the Lok Sabha polls. He maintained a profile for more than a year until Rawat cajoled him and ensured his presence at former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s tractor rally against the farm laws five months ago.

Hindustan Times

18-03-2021

Chandigarh