Navjot Singh Sidhu may be a great competitor, but he is yet to know who he is fighting against

In Navjot Singh Sidhu’s mirror of the mind he is a General (Jarnail in Punjabi) caught up in team games. Depending on how you see it, he is either brutally individualistic or highly self-centred, uncompromising or intransigent, a born commander or a power hungry politician. Either way, he cannot fathom why the top post of captain or chief minister has not been naturally bequeathed to him. Sidhu is playing a key role for the Punjab Congress in the coming Assembly elections. Anointed president of the state Congress unit — after much controversy — there is a lot resting on him. He is supposedly close to Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi. They like his aggression, hunger to excel, take on the rivals, and all of this he does in a high decibel campaign. The problem arises when he shows utter disdain and public contempt for some of his own teammates. Like some of the world’s best batters if you rile or sledge them, they use it to raise their game. Sidhu is in that mould. He still cannot understand why the Congress leadership never gave him the CM position after Amarinder Singh was ousted. To borrow a line that former US President Ronald Reagan used for Jimmy Carter after beating him: “It was way past his bedtime.” Sidhu sent the same signal to Amarinder. To figure out Sidhu’s mental make-up somewhat, let me take you through some other strands from the past. I met him for the first time near Patiala when he had retired from international cricket. We were trying to get him to do a show for a broadcast network. I remember meeting him in a restaurant where he sat in the middle of a large sofa, arms akimbo, absolutely owning the place. He was loud, gregarious, extroverted. The show did not happen as he would not budge from a figure he had in mind. Some years later, my good friend Ajay Jadeja was doing a show with Sidhu. He complained Sidhu would not let him speak, constantly interrupt and dominate the show. That indicated Sidhu’s nature of being the alpha male. When he entered politics, his senior Ravi Shastri told me, Sidhu had a single-minded doggedness which would take him far in Indian politics. Cut to the present. Sidhu is waging a campaign against the BJP, Badals and the man he loves to hate, Amarinder Singh. But it seems he is on his own most of the time. CM Charanjit Singh Channi, while interacting with a media house, said Sidhu is known for his sixers and that is the way he plays. Do not expect singles and twos from him. It was reported that CM Channi was in the process of talks with his Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal about the feasibility of giving eight LPG cylinders per year and Rs 2,000 per month to Punjab’s women when suddenly Sidhu got a sniff of it. He fired the first volley from Bhadaur that women were in for a bonanza if his party was voted to power. He wanted the spotlight on himself. Former MP from Gurdaspur, Partap Singh Bajwa, would have been taken aback as such declarations are made in the party manifesto. And he is the chairman of the manifesto committee. In another instance, even as the party screening committee, which shortlists candidates, was holding sittings, Sidhu declared that Fateh Jung Bajwa, sitting MLA of Qadian, would be re-nominated for the ticket. He also announced at a public rally held in Batala that Ashwani Sekhri would be the party’s candidate from Batala. Sidhu is neither a veteran Congressman nor does he have a big political base. Yet, he was chosen to head the state unit, ostensibly with the aim of using his celebrity status to soften the anti-incumbency factor. Sidhu had attacked Amarinder for not fulfilling poll promises. And he is now equally unsparing of Channi. Sidhu had his way by getting Channi to replace advocate general APS Deol with DS Patwalia and state DGP IPS Sahota with Sidharth Chattopadhyay. And all of this was in full public glare. Rahul and Priyanka intended to use Sidhu as a team player, a second in-command and an adhesive to keep the team together. As it transpires, Sidhu can’t or won’t be able to carry out any of those great expectations. He wants to be projected as the CM face. Sensing trouble, Rahul’s right hand man, KC Venugopal, called four senior Congress members to Delhi. They apparently conveyed a message: Rein in Sidhu or else the party may face electoral damage. Voices from within say more power to Sidhu may damage prospects among both Dalits and upper caste Hindus. Channi, Punjab’s first Dalit chief minister, has been mobilising his own caste base (Ravidasi/ Ramdasi/ Adi Dharmi). He is also wooing other Dalit sub-castes. Congress is worried that the party’s upper caste Hindu base is shifting to the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). If the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) manages to walk away with the Jat Sikh vote, it will damage the Congress more than AAP in the Malwa belt. Rural panthic voters may be tilting towards the SAD. The latest incident is Sidhu’s rift with home minister Sukhjinder Randhawa over SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia not being arrested in a drugs case. Randhawa, a Jat Sikh like Sidhu, has offered to resign on the issue. Both Sidhu and Randhawa wield clout in Punjab’s upper Majha region, which is also represented by leaders such as Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Sukhbinder Sarkaria, Om Parkash Soni and Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa. That Sidhu had been holding rallies in their areas has not gone down well with these leaders. Following the latest trouble in Punjab over the Prime Minister’s security breach, the Channi administration has been under fire. So, Sidhu chose to counter attack. In a press conference he said: “How can the PM address 7,000 chairs in which 500 people are sitting in a rally,” he alleged. “All the real issues of the state, be it farmers or unemployment, have been put to the backburner.” “PM Modi, your party and Sangh Parivar may not have hoisted the tricolour numerous times in their lives, the same innumerable times the tirangaa (tricolour) has been wrapped around the bodies of Punjab sapoots. Therefore, to claim that PM Modi’s life was in danger in Punjab is an insult to Panjabiyat,” he added. Recently, two MLAs, Fatehjang Bajwa (Qadian) and Balwinder Laddi (Sri Hargobindpur), joined the BJP. This happened after Sidhu’s rallies in their constituencies. Channi eventually managed to convince Laddi to return. Sidhu’s backing of Rajya Sabha MP Shamsher Singh Dullo is seen as an indirect attack on the CM. Sidhu had met Dullo where Channi’s silence on the alleged scams related to scholarships for Dalit students and the hooch tragedy deaths in the state were discussed. Dullo, as PPCC chief, had denied Channi a ticket from Chamkaur Sahib in 2007. Sidhu would find it tough to even win his own constituency of Amritsar East. Plan B might be to contest from his home town of Patiala. There he would run into his old enemy Amarinder. Let us also remember why Sidhu left the BJP. Sidhu joined the BJP in 2004 and contested the general election from Amritsar that year. He held the seat till 2014 winning also the next election. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2016 from Punjab before he resigned the same year and quit the party. He was incensed that the BJP gave the seat to Arun Jaitley. Sometimes it is good to go back to the beginning to understand things better. After a string of poor performances by Sidhu in 1983, Rajan Bala wrote an article on him titled “Sidhu: The Strokeless Wonder”. That title challenged him. He began hitting the spinners for huge sixes. Arjuna Ranatunga, who was a panellist on a show I produced, said Muralitharan would ask for a long off and long on the moment he saw Sidhu. He had instilled fear in the opposition. After his improved performance in 1987 World Cup, the same Rajan Bala wrote an article titled “Sidhu: From Strokeless Wonder To A Palm-Grove Hitter”. He was also christened as “Sixer Sidhu”. But later, the same Sidhu walked out of India’s 1996 tour of England citing differences with captain Mohammad Azharuddin. Following this, he was banished from the team for ten Tests by the BCCI eventually making a return in the 1996-97 tour of West Indies. That is Sidhu for you. Sidhu currently believes the dinosaur is having one last roar at the meteor before getting wiped out. Trouble is, while he firmly considers himself the meteor, he is unable to identify who is the real dinosaur — his old party (BJP), his former CM (Capt Amarinder Singh), the preceding power (the Badals) or maybe the enemy within. The author is CEO, nnis. Views expressed are personal.