After former Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu launched a verbal attack against Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh , several Cabinet Ministers on Monday urged the Congress high command to take strict disciplinary action against Mr. Sidhu.
Terming Mr. Sidhu’s onslaught on the Chief Minister as an act of “gross indiscipline” and an attempt to “undermine the Congress government in the State”, the Ministers said the MLA’s personal attack on Mr. Singh was an “anti-party act”, which called for immediate disciplinary action.
The Cabinet Ministers, including Brahm Mohindra, Sunder Sham Arora and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, strongly criticised Mr. Sidhu’s actions and his open attack on the Congress Chief Minister while being an elected MLA from the same party.
In a joint statement, the Ministers said Mr. Sidhu’s recent spate of comments against the Chief Minister could no longer be dismissed as the rantings of a disgruntled member of a democratic political party, adding that the open rebellion was damaging the interests of the Congress at a time when Assembly election in the State was less than a year away.
“Failure to take action against Sidhu now could trigger unrest in the party’s State unit, which would be fatal for the party that had suffered major electoral blows in the recently concluded Assembly polls in five States,” the Ministers said.
They said it was more than evident now that Mr. Sidhu’s intentions were nefarious and motivated by his vested personal and political interests.
Dubbing Mr. Sidhu’s aggressive posturing on social media as an attempt by the disgruntled MLA to pressurise the high command into succumbing to his unreasonable demands, the Ministers said unless urgent steps were taken by the party to check his unbridled tirade, it would encourage other ambitious and rebellious members to raise their voice openly against the Congress leadership while continuing to enjoy its patronage.
Mr. Sidhu had on May 9 alleged that there was a consensus among legislators that the State was being run by the “Badals” instead of their own Congress party.
“Consensus among MLAs, Badal Sarkar is ruling in lieu of Congress Govt ... Bureaucracy and Police act as per wishes of Badal family, more often than listening to our MLAs and Party workers. Govt run not for welfare of the People, but for continuing control of Mafia Raj,” Mr. Sidhu had tweeted.
