Chandigarh, (Samajweekly) Against the backdrop of former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s likely appointment as Congress’ Punjab unit chief, 10 ruling party legislators on Sunday came in support of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and urged the party high command not to let him down.
Supporting the Chief Minister’s stand that he won’t meet Sidhu until he apologises for his “derogatory” tweets, the legislators, in a joint statement, said Sidhu should tender a public apology so that the party and the government can function in tandem.
The legislators, comprising three from AAP who recently joined the Congress, said Sidhu was a celebrity and was no doubt an asset to the party but condemning and criticising his own party and government in public has only created a “rift in the cadres and weakened it”.
“There is no doubt that the appointment of state PCC chief was the prerogative of the party high command, but at the same time, washing dirty linen in public has only decreased the party graph during the last couple of months,” the lawmakers said in the statement.
They said it was due to Amarinder Singh that the party regained power in Punjab in the aftermath of 1984 attack on Darbar Sahib and the subsequent genocide of the Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in the country.
“He commands immense respect across different sections of society in the state, particularly the farmers for whom he even endangered his chair as CM while passing the 2004 Termination of Waters Agreement Act,” they said.
Amarinder Singh had to also face extreme vendetta politics at the hands of the Badal family, for filing corruption and disproportionate assets case against them in his first tenure as Chief Minister.
The legislators said that since merely six months were left for the elections, pulling the party into the different directions will only harm its prospects in the 2022 polls.
They said they hoped the high command would take cognizance of their suggestions and will definitely keep in mind the status, contribution and background of Amarinder Singh in mind while making vital decisions for the party.
Legislator Sukhpal Khaira, who recently crossed over from AAP to the Congress, said that the joint statement was issued after talking to his colleagues — Harminder Gill, Fateh Bajwa, Gurpreet G.P., Kuldeep Vaid, Balwinder Laddoo, Santok Singh Bhalaipur, Joginder Bhoa, Jagdev Kamalu and Primal Khalsa.
