Channi makes truce with Sidhu; Punjab storm blows over, for now

An uneasy rapprochement has been brokered between Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and the state’s Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu following a nearly three-hour-long meeting between the two at the party office in Chandigarh. Though details of the truce are not yet known, it is learnt that Channi has agreed to review decisions related to appointment of certain officials against whom Sidhu had raised a red flag while announcing his abrupt resignation as the Punjab Congress chief on Tuesday.

For the beleaguered Congress, signs of reconciliation between Channi and Sidhu came on a day when former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh declared his plan to quit the party over “insults” meted out to him by the leadership. While Singh, who had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Wednesday, said he was “not joining the BJP”, the disgruntled Patiala Royal also declared that he was exploring his future political course and will ensure the defeat of Sidhu in the assembly polls due in Punjab early next year.

Sidhu was the face of the Congress rebellion against Singh, which ultimately led to the latter’s exit from office earlier this month. However, Sidhu’s rebellious ways haven’t changed with Singh’s ouster as chief minister. Handling the mercurial Amritsar East MLA has become a major challenge for the Congress’s central leadership, which had appointed him as the Punjab Congress chief in July despite stiff opposition from various leaders within the party, including the former chief minister.

Congress sources say that the party leadership’s annoyance at his ‘tantrum a day’ approach had been conveyed to Sidhu soon after his resignation from the post of Punjab Congress chief. The Congress high command – Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra – had made it known to Sidhu that it would no longer come to his aid in settling what they saw as “disputes between two individuals (Channi and Sidhu)” that can be resolved through better communication. The high command had, instead, left it to Channi and Sidhu to talk their differences through. Channi made the first move on Wednesday by calling up Sidhu and inviting him for talks.

Also read: ‘I don’t have ego tussles… let’s talk’: Channi reaches out to Sidhu

Sources told The Federal that the PCC chief spoke to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is presently in Lucknow, after it was clear to him that, unlike the past, the high command was in no mood to indulge his whims. It was largely Priyanka’s patronage that had pivoted Sidhu to the PCC chief’s post and his resignation without any consultation with Channi or the central leadership was being viewed within the party as an act of betrayal of the trust that she had placed in him. Sources said Sidhu told Priyanka that the party’s campaign for the impending assembly polls will be severely hampered due to appointment of some allegedly tainted ministers and officials by Channi over the past week. It is learnt that Priyanka, who is the Congress general secretary in-charge of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh but has positioned herself as a key troubleshooter of the party in the past year, however, told Sidhu to “sort out the issues” with Channi.

On Thursday morning, Sidhu tweeted that he would be reaching the party office in Chandigarh from Patiala, where he had been camping at his residence since his resignation, and that the chief minister was welcome to meet him for a discussion. Although Sidhu’s approach ruffled many within the party – former state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar hit out saying “enough is enough” – on grounds that he was back to undermining the authority of the chief minister without thinking of the embarrassment to the party and the electoral ammunition he was handing over to political rivals by strengthening the already perceived impression that the Congress had appointed Punjab’s first Dalit Sikh chief only as a rubber stamp.

Also read: Sidhu agrees to ‘meet and discuss’ after Channi extends olive branch

A senior Punjab Congress leader told The Federal that some party leaders and ministers advised Channi to “not cave in” before Sidhu by going to meet him at the Punjab Bhawan, the chief minister wanted to convey the message that he wanted “to take everyone along and will not shy away from walking the extra mile if this was in the interest of the party and its government.” Channi arrived at Punjab Bhawan shortly after Sidhu and the two, along with Punjab Congress working presidents Kuljit Nagra and Pawan Goel, minister Pargat Singh and the Congress central observer for Punjab, Harish Chaudhary, discussed a series of issues.

In the nearly three-hour-long meeting that followed, sources say Sidhu vociferously demanded immediate sacking of Iqbal Singh Sahota, who had been given additional charge as the state’s director general of police, and of APS Deol, the newly appointed Advocate General for the state.

Before heading into the meeting, Sidhu had also tweeted about his reservations over Sahota’s appointment saying: “DGP IPS Sahota was head of SIT investigating beadbi (sacrilege) case under the Badal government, he wrongfully indicted two Sikh youth for sacrilege & gave clean chit to Badals. In 2018, I along with INC Ministers, then PCC Pres & present Home Minister assured them of our support in fight for Justice” (sic). Similarly, in his video message posted on Twitter on Wednesday to explain the reasons for his resignation, Sidhu had taken exception to Deol’s appointment. Besides demanding the removal of Sahota and Deol, Sidhu is also learnt to have demanded the ouster of controversial minister Rana Gurjit Singh from the newly formed Channi cabinet and a rejig of some of the portfolios, including taking away reins of the powerful home department from deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.

Channi and Chaudhary, say sources, told Sidhu that a rejig of the state cabinet within weeks of it being sworn-in would only cause further embarrassment to the party and give the impression that the chief minister was not under control even after the high command sought to end the acrimony in Punjab Congress with Singh’s removal. Similarly, the chief minister is learnt to have told Sidhu that though Deol has been appointed as the Advocate General, the government will not rely on him to prosecute the accused in the sacrilege cases and would instead appoint a panel of lawyers for this purpose. On Sahota’s appointment, sources say the chief minister reasoned that the IPS officer had only been given additional charge as the DGP till such a time that a full-time DGP is appointed.

Also read: Sidhu’s demands met, will remain leader of Punjab Congress

While Channi seems to have offered a point-by-point explanation and limited reconciliation plan to Sidhu, Congress insiders said that it may take at least another day or two to iron out all the differences between the chief minister and the PCC chief. This is, perhaps, the reason why neither Channi nor Sidhu addressed the posse of media persons who had gathered outside Punjab Bhawan. Sources say the Congress high command is also weighing in on the option of forming a coordination committee for better communication between the government and the party. Besides Channi and Sidhu, the committee is likely to have senior ministers, office bearers of the Punjab Congress, some MPs and MLAs as its members.

Channi is also expected to convene a meeting of his cabinet on October 4 where some populist decisions, in keeping with the 18-point governance agenda of Sidhu, are likely to be taken and announced. These may involve an announcement on how the government wants to proceed with prosecution in the sacrilege cases and some measures with regard to farmers and the controversial power purchase agreements signed between the erstwhile Akali-BJP government and private thermal power plants in the state.

For now, indications are that Sidhu has decided to take back his resignation. However, the truce, party insiders concede, is fickle at best, considering Sidhu’s unpredictability. “You never know what he will take offense at next… even if all goes well for the remaining four months of the government, Sidhu will keep the party and the government on edge till the time ticket distribution for candidates for the assembly polls is finalised because he would want a lion’s share of the candidates to be chosen by him. We are only delaying the inevitable,” said a senior party leader. Until the next Sidhu tantrum then!