“Hai andhera bahut, ab sooraj nikalna chaiye….
jaise bhi ho ye mausam badalna chaiye..
Aur jo chehre roj badalte hain naqabo ki tarah…
ab janaza dhoom se unka, nikalna chahiye…”
These were the lines once spoken by a staunch BJP guy, Navjot Singh Sidhu but who knew that 3 years later, the “Chehra” of his audience will change and this time, the audience was Congress and its leadership, but he kept the lines, same. Either its comedy shows or politics, Sidhu is well known for his poetic manners, irrespective of the occasion, he never misses to strike. Unfortunately, this time he went too far and too across.
It all started
The rift between Sidhu and BJP could be well observed, when the party announced Arun Jaitley as its candidate from the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 where Sidhu was already the most popular leader as he won the seat twice in the past for BJP. The rift grew wider, when his hope of becoming the face for CM candidate for BJP in the Punjab assembly elections 2017 came down hard, and this time he didn’t compromise over his personal ambitions and resigned from the Rajya Sabha seat and the party. hence just before the Punjab elections, he joined INC and proclaimed it as “Ghar Vapsi”. As we know, in politics, after travelling a mile for the party, personal ambitions become the fuel for the next mile. But Sidhu always denied the allegations, instead he justified it as a failure of BJP on its promises to the people that made him change his stand. But later it became more visible, after congress won the Punjab elections 2017, when Sidhu and his wife negotiated successfully for the desired position in the Punjab cabinet. Since then Sidhu never missed a chance to attack the BJP government and the Prime minister Narendra Modi ignoring his long-term solidarity with NDA.
Hug-a-Thug
In a democracy, a strong ‘opposition’ is considered as healthy and essential, especially for the worlds’ largest democracy, only if it is constructive. Unfortunately, in India, it’s the “opportunities” and political agendas, that drives the role of the ‘opposition’ and Sidhu just reassured it. Since 2014 India has witnessed a downfall in the stature of the “Opposition”. Failed leadership, lack of commitment and political greed, are the clear reasons of it. During the last sitting of 16th Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned it very rightly that “with the urge of defaming BJP, the opposition went too far and started defaming their own country”. Which can be seen very clearly, when Sidhu went to Pakistan to attend the swearing ceremony of his friend from cricketing days, Imran khan as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan and there, he hugged the Pak Army General, Bajwa and returned back winning all the hearts in Pakistan.
Unfortunately, he betrayed and demeaned his own people, own army and added a pinch of salt over the wounds of all the families who lost their sons in all the attacks by the Pakistan. His act even didn’t go down well with his chief minister, but instead of condemning it and paying attention to the loud reaction of the people against him, Congress sidelined itself by merely calling Sidhu’s visit, his “personal choice”. On the other hand, Sidhu justified every bit of it and even went ahead blaming Modi government for not showing big heart for Imran khan.
Kartarpur Karaoke
When all this was still burning, Sidhu hammered again and this time the occasion was Kartarpur Corridor meet. During which, Sidhu not only went beyond in praising his friend Imran but almost made him the brand ambassador of peace and harmony and this was not it, his selfie with a Khalistani Agent fueled more anger among his own people, back home but surely that led him win few more hearts in Pakistan. Returning favor to his “shayari”, the Pak Supremo went ahead and called Sidhu, the most loved Indian in Pakistan, who can even win election from there, if contests.
Well all of this must have worked for Navjot Singh Sidhu to win the good will of Pakistan but he didn’t realize that he his first an Indian before everything else, and a true Indian will always stand tall with his army irrespective of the ruling govt. He should have made out that, he is no more a cricketer but an elected representative and a minister of Punjab govt. He cannot demean his constitutional position for gaining few claps from Pakistan and while holding that position, showering love over a killer of Indian soldiers would never be accepted by any one, and he will be condemned as anti-national.
Hence soon after his comeback, a lot of criticism happened while Sidhu unapologetically defended and called it as an agenda of BJP to diverse the attention from the core issues. Well under the sense of achievement of winning hearts in Pakistan, he didn’t realize that he has already crossed the line way back and for Indians it’s no more Modi vs him but He vs Indian army.
Repeated “Shayari”
Since then Sidhu has become the child of self-invoked controversies, one after the another. While Sidhu should know that he can’t win support from libtards even, criticizing a staunch nationalist and the most popular leader of India, Narendra Modi with his punch lines standing over the Pak land, which would surely be considered as an insult of India. Extending it further triggered the fresh controversy over Pulwama attack. Sidhu should have condemned the Pulwama attack as Pak sponsored terror attack, which needed no evidence, as its not new, but he intentionally didn’t because he wanted to blame BJP over Kashmir issues. He on one side wanted to pursue the good will of Pakistanis and on the other hand he wanted to take political mileage from the situation. Unfortunately, he landed up between the devil and the deep sea, the devil of his narrative, he tried to build for Pak after his two visits and a deep sea of criticism on his unapologetic stand till now for it.
Hence, he preferred the deep sea and condemned the attack in a pro-Pak tone. He not only brought disgrace to the army but also mocked the families of the martyrs once again. But I am sure this time neither he will be left un-understood by the people nor he will dare to make such callous statements in future. Though he still holds his stand but he is the one who will lose in its repercussions. Because by now he too, has realized that, it is not about BJP, but INDIA VS PAK, where no “shayari” works.
Rahul Sharma,
Social Media Activist.
