Punjab’s dissident Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday asked Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to "stop firing from colleagues’ shoulders" after some state ministers sought action against him for his outbursts against the CM.
The cricketer-turned-politician made the diatribe against the chief minister, reiterating his demand for justice in the 2015 sacrilegious incidents in which several torn pages of the Guru Granth Sahib were found strewn in Punjab Faridkot’s district.
The incident had led to the death of two protesters two days later in police firing.
Mr. Sidhu attacked the chief minister asking him “who will protect you in the court of the ‘Great Guru’?” “Yesterday & Today, My soul’s demand is Justice for Guru Sahib, will reiterate it tomorrow as well! Punjab’s Conscience is above party lines. Stop firing from party colleagues’ shoulders. You are directly Responsible & Answerable – Who will protect you in the court of the Great Guru?” Mr. Sidhu said in a tweet on Thursday.
Mr. Sidhu turned critical of Amarinder Singh after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed last month a probe report into the 2015 Kotkapura firing case.
The Amritsar East legislator has been repeatedly attacking the chief minister on social media over the alleged delay in the administration of justice in the 2015 sacrilegious incidents and the police firing.
The Punjab CM had earlier called Mr. Sidhu's outbursts “total indiscipline.” Four Punjab ministers too on Wednesday had sought Sidhu’s suspension for consistently attacking Amarinder Singh. They accused the former minister of attacking the party's state leadership at the behest of the AAP or the BJP.
The four ministers – Balbir Sidhu, Vijay Inder Singla, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Gurpreet Singh Kangar – had on Wednesday said Mr. Sidhu's “provocative and targeted” attacks on Amarinder Singh over the past several days were an “invitation for disaster” for the Congress.
Three other ministers – Brahm Mohindra, Sunder Sham Arora and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot – earlier too had urged the Congress high command to take strict disciplinary action against Mr. Sidhu.
