No laughing matter for Sidhu

Raju Korti

If there ever were to be an award for misplaced bravado, Navjot Singh Sidhu would be one of its top contenders. His track record in all the spheres he has been into amply showcases his talent for either running into trouble or for stirring it. His bitter, long drawn ego war with the recently resigned chief minister Capt Amrinder Singh bears it out. While he may derive pleasure from the oneupmanship that saw Capt Amrinder being edged out of the hot seat, he apparently has had little to gain. The stung chief minister has vowed he will do everything within his means to ensure Sidhu doesn't get to ascend the CM's throne.

Sidhu's turbulent course in politics shows the man has learnt precious little from his wacky experiments. When he joined politics after losing his place in the national side to join the BJP, riding on the Modi wave, I had predicted that he may not find it easy on the new turf. In the two-plus years that he was in the BJP, the latter's leaders, more wily and seasoned than the cricketer, yorked him into a persona non grata. Just like what it did to Shatrughan Sinha. But Sidhu, always ready to tread where angels fear to tread, continued with his dissenting habits. Shatrughan realized sensibly he had nowhere to go. The BJP did not throw him out for his indiscreet utterances but Shatrughan wised up to the fact that if he quit the party, he would have to be content with a diminished status elsewhere.

I am sure the Congress High Command in its depleted condition must have found it tough to cater to Sidhu's militant ways because it would be fishing in troubled water anywhichways -- whether they asked Capt Amrinder to step down or asked Sidhu to (or his proxy) to take charge. Punjab, as among the few congress-ruled states is now cutting a sorry figure because of Sidhu's antics. But then the Sardar who has donned multiple hats in the course of his meandering career, is not coming to terms that playing on cricketing turf is one thing and playing on political wicket is quite another.

I bumped into Sidhu sometime during the 1987 World Cup. As I sauntered to the pitch where the Indian team was practicing, I saw him joking around and pulling the leg of a few enthusiastic teenagers. He came across as a jovial person who could laugh at the drop of a hat -- a quality that he monetized so well with his laughter at The Great India Laughter Challenge. His easy mannered approach endeared him to the people around and no one had any inkling that there was a rebel lurking in him. In his cricketing career, he did fairly well for himself in both the longer and shorter versions of the game. After being labelled as a "stroke-less wonder" he brought some zest to his batting to emerge as a "Palm Grove Hitter". It was an epiphany that changed his life and he responded to that criticism by metamorphosing into an aggressive batsman.

I have a reason to believe that Sidhu imbibed this aggressive spirit and carried it where it wasn't needed. I wasn't farther from the truth when he turned into a television commentator, often coming out with one-liners that bordered somewhere between offensive and funny.  His commentary, hailed as 'Sidhuism', was just the fuel his rhetoric needed. After an unseemly row, Star India put him in the soup for breaching his contract. During one of the matches he was commentating, his fellow commentator, the Kiwi star batsman Martin Crowe told me the delight he took in rubbing Sidhu the wrong way. In his perpetual high, Sidhu never realized that he was being subjected to leg pull.

His exuberant side came to the fore on the same small screen when he along with Shekhar Suman judged the laughter show. Sidhu became a laughing stock himself as he would start laughing even before the contestant completed his joke. Although he knew he was being panned for the needless mirth, there was no let up with Sidhu who at times would erupt into a laughter even before a contestant got on to the stage. He never missed dates with controversies. On the Kapil Sharma show he made a pro-Pakistan statement that raised the hackles of people. His proclivities with Pakistan army chief Gen Bajwa came in for heavy flak but Sidhu being Sidhu, couldn't care less.

It was obvious that Sidhu got Rajya Sabha nomination only to be pre-empted from joining the Aam Aadmi Party. Having stuck out with the Congress, he is now at the crossroads once again, as he has been umpteen number of times before in different phases of his changing careers. The only time he was lucky to get away was when he was accused of complicity in a homicide case.

To his chagrin, Sidhu finds that while he could pressure Capt Sidhu in resigning, he hasn't succeeded in attaining his larger objective -- of installing his own lackey as the CM. Now he has had to resign with a desperate-sounding statement that he will continue to serve the Congress party. He has no option. The other parties, having seen enough of his hyperbole and balderdash, will not touch him with a bargepole. By all accounts the new CM of Punjab Charanjit Singh Channi has put paid to his plans in spite of all the lip service to the former cricketer. The man doesn't realize that he has been snubbed strongly by the very party he keeps singing praises of.

In one of my earlier blogs I had predicted that this man had a penchant to become a persona non grata wherever he goes. Now, as his bete noire Capt Amrinder says, "he is also unstable."