Former state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu maintained his position before an AICC panel constituted to settle factionalism in the state unit, days after criticising Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh over claimed lack of justice in the sacrilege and police shooting cases.
“My stand remains unchanged,” said Sidhu, who met the panel headed by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge here today for nearly two hours. “I came here to apprise the AICC committee of Punjab affairs and have alerted them about the ground realities. I have echoed the truth of Punjab eloquently,” he said, looking upbeat after emerging from the deliberations.
All anti-Punjab elements, according to the Amritsar MLA, must be defeated. Sidhu stated that his aim was to restore the power of the Punjabi people—their taxes—to them and to make them shareholders in the state’s success.
The ex-minister, who quit the state Cabinet in July 2019 after being divested of local bodies portfolio, has been in political wilderness ever since.
The CM, who will meet the AICC panel on Thursday, has maintained that the SIT probe in the Kotkapura sacrilege case was ongoing and “justice would be served”. Sources say a statement from the CM could be a way out of the current stalemate and for Sidhu’s return to the Cabinet.
