Days after his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu stirred up a controversy by alleging that Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and senior Congress leader Asha Kumari ensured that she was denied the Lok Sabha ticket from Amritsar, Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday, 16 May, backed her accusation, saying she would "never lie".
"My wife has that much strength and moral authority that she will never lie. This is my answer," Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is Tourism and Culture minister, said when asked about his wife's allegations.
On 14 May, Congress leader and former MLA Navjot Kaur Sidhu had alleged that it was Amarinder Singh and the party's Punjab affairs in-charge Kumari who ensured that she does not get the party ticket from the Amritsar parliamentary constituency.
She has clarified that she was talking exclusively about the Amritsar seat. “It's not fair to tell me to go Bhatinda when I don't know anyone there,” she said.
Simmering Tension
Kaur, who had also been seeking ticket from the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, had alleged that the chief minister had claimed that he alone was capable to lead the Congress to victory on 13 parliamentary seats in the state.
"Capt Sahab and Asha Kumari think that Madam Sidhu (Navjot Kaur) does not deserve an MP ticket. My ticket from Amritsar was denied on grounds that I could not win because of a train accident in Amritsar on Dussehra (in October last year which left 60 people dead). Madam Sidhu cannot win, this was said by Capt and Asha Kumari," she had told reporters in Amritsar.
Further hitting out at Amarinder Singh and Kumari, she also said they think that the Sidhu couple is not capable to "do some benefit for Punjab".
The simmering tension between the cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu and the chief minister had come out in the open on a few occasions in the past.
Sidhu had last year in Hyderabad said, “Rahul Gandhi is my captain... Rahul Gandhi is the captain of the captain (Amarinder Singh) also.”
Amarinder Singh had earlier disapproved of Sidhu hugging the Pakistan army chief during his visit to the neighbouring country.
Sidhu has also slammed the Badals over the issue of farm debt waiver, claiming that the previous SAD-BJP government had failed in settling a single rupee of farmers’ loan despite bringing an act - the Punjab Settlement of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 2016 - for it.
"Positions lying vacant in most of debt settlement forums at district level were not filled. Nothing had happened during the previous regime. It showed their intent and lack of interest in protecting farmers," he said.
"They spent Rs 1.50 crore on advertisement of the settlement of debt. But not even a single rupee was settled," he claimed.
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