Navjot Singh Sidhu has hit back at Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh for unfairly singling him out for the poor show of the Congress as the chief minister raised questions over his department’s dismal performance. Sidhu said the responsibility of the loss should be collective and he felt singled out when out of 50 other departments in the state cabinet only his was being questioned. He claimed that some people wanted him out of the party and added that defeat and victory should be a collective responsibility of the government.
The reaction seems to worsen Sidhu’s relations with Singh. A week before Punjab chief minister blamed Sidhu for the seats lost by the party in Lok Sabha polls. On May 23, Amarinder had said the Congress failed to do well in urban areas of the state because Sidhu handled his portfolio poorly. He also referred to the state minister’s remarks on the Guru Granth Sahib desecration case and said it could have affected the party’s performance in Bathinda.
In response, Sidhu said nobody in the party worked with as much transparency as he did and that he generated Rs 6,000 crores and completed all the pending projects. He claimed that the urban development department didn’t have enough money to give salaries to employees but nobody was questioned that. He said he won’t object if the government decided to change his portfolio and that he would accept his mistake 100 times, if any. The ongoing rift between Sidhu and Amarinder widened after Navjot Kaur Sidhu claimed that Amarinder Singh had blocked her attempts to get a Congress ticket from Amritsar and Chandigarh. Sidhu too supported her saying his wife could never lie.
Amarinder had also blamed Sidhu’s remarks on Pakistan and his inadequate handling of local bodies department for the party’s poor performance in Punjab. Attacking the Punjab chief minister in a press briefing, Sidhu said the Congress had not won any election in Bathinda in 40 years.
He claimed it was not the first time he was being targeted as he had been treated unfairly seven to eight times in the past as well be it on Kartarpur corridor or attending Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony.
