Chandigarh – At a time when the Congress MLAs in Punjab are tendering their resignations from party positions as their claims for ministerial berths have been rejected with impunity, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday appointed Local Bodies’ Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu as director-chairperson of Punjab Warehousing Corporation.The Chief Minister handed over the appointment letter to Navjot Kaur Sidhu at her husband’s official residence in  the evening in the presence of Navjot Singh Sidhu and Rural Development Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa. The orders will be effective from the date of her joining, as per the notification issued in this regard. A former Chief
Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) in Parkash Singh Badal’s 2012-17 government, Navjot Kaur Sidhu had joined the
Congress just ahead of 2017 Vidhan Sabha polls but didn’t contest the polls as the party had allocated ticket to her
former BJP MP and husband Navjot Singh Sidhu from Amritsar.Her appointment in the state administration created a flutter in the Congress party on Wednesday evening as the
development came amid the state unit Congress chief Sunil Jakhar trying his best to mollify the annoyed MLAs by
assuring them of getting adjusted as chairpersons of different boards and corporations. However, before their turn
could come, the Chief Minister opted to do so for Sidhu’s wife.Some of the political experts look at the development with a different perspective. The appointment is being seen in connection with Navjot Sigh Sidhu’s 30-year-old road rage case in which one elderly man had lost life. The case is in the Supreme Court, where Punjab government has recently sought three years’ imprisonment for him through the Advocate General office. The response of state government in SC had hurt Sidhu to such an extent that he couldn’t avoid expressing it in media also, though in his own signature style of pouring out the heart by using couplets to take on rivals.A day after the development, the CM had to come in media to say that his government had no option but to seek
punishment for Sidhu as going otherwise would be a major question mark on the credibility of the state government.
Now with the appointment of Sidhu’s former MLA wife, the CM seems to have attempted to please the ‘visibly
annoyed’ Sidhu, whom he had also once referred to as his son, opine the political observers.Further, they also find it a strategic move of Amarinder Singh and his advisors as the SC verdict can go either way in Sidhu case, where the complainant has submitted a TV show’s video clip to prove Sidhu’s so-called confession in the case. As per the law, a convict can’t hold any government position and even in the past all ministers who were
convicted by the court of law had to step down by tendering resignations from the Cabinet.

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