Amarinder sticks to his guns, no meet with Sidhu until apology

Even after the announcement of Navjot Singh Sidhu as the President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, the feud between Sidhu and Captain Amarinder shows no sign of ending. It may be recalled that Captain Amarinder Singh had made it clear during a meeting with Punjab Congress in-charge Harish Rawat last week and expressed his anger over Sidhu's scathing tweets against him and would not meet his rival until he publicly apologized.

Chandigarh: Even after the announcement of Navjot Singh Sidhu as the President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, the feud between Sidhu and Captain Amarinder shows no sign of ending. Navjot Singh Sidhu has been active since the announcement of the party president on Sunday night and has been meeting party MLAs and senior leaders.

Meanwhile, speculations of a meeting between Sidhu and the Captain have been making rounds in the media for the last two days. The news was scotched on Tuesday when Chief Minister's Media Adviser Ravin Thukral not only dismissed it in a tweet but also said that there would be no meeting until Sidhu publicly apologized. Capt Amarinder Singh had made it clear during a meeting with Punjab Congress in-charge Harish Rawat last week that Sidhu had made public tweets against him and would not meet him unless he publicly apologised. Even after Navjot Sidhu was declared party president, Captain Amarinder Singh has not spoken to him yet.

Actually, Navjot Singh Sidhu joined the Congress before the 2017 Assembly elections, but the atmosphere between Sidhu and Captain Amarinder Singh has been tense. After being a cabinet minister for two years, his department was changed in 2019, but he did not accept it and resigned from the cabinet. Since then, Sidhu has been targeting the Punjab Chief Minister. Over the last few months, the attacks have been so intense as Sidhu kept criticizing Captain's governance in a a series of tweets, causing lot of heartburn to the 79-year-old CM.

Sidhu's attack also intensified on the sacrilege issue. After the rejection of the SIT's probe report into the Guru Granth Sahib desecration case in 2015, Captain Amarinder Singh constituted a new SIT and the probe resumed. In April, Sidhu tweeted to the captain, questioning his leadership and his intentions. Then in the month of May too, using #Beadbi, he again questioned the captain and said that the noise was loud and there was no result.

Sidhu also targeted the Punjab CM over the power crisis in the state. He also accused both Captain Amarinder Singh and former CM Parkash Singh Badal for the recent power crisis. Sidhu advised his own government that an offer of free 300 units of electricity can be provided to the residents of Punjab. Sidhu tweeted that fulfilling the pro-people 18 point agenda given by the Congress High Command should be started by cancelling the power purchase agreements signed by the Badals. Therefore, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha should convene a session to enact a law to fix the power prices as per the National Power Exchange at no cost.