Rawat had met Sidhu on March 10
- March 17, 2021
- Updated: 01:05 am
DW BUREAU / chandigarh
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is expected to meet former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu over lunch on Wednesday, amid speculations that the cricketer-turned-politician might be given an important role ahead of the 2022 state polls, official sources said. This will be the second luncheon meeting between the leaders. The first such meeting had taken place in November last year, seen as the first step to break the ice between the two sides.
Singh had then said that he and Sidhu would continue to have cordial meetings. Another meeting between the two leaders assumes significance as the Congress central leadership has been trying to rehabilitate Sidhu who had resigned as minister after he was divested of the Local Bodies portfolio in 2019. Congress leader and Punjab affairs in-charge Harish Rawat has been pushing for an important position for Sidhu.
Rawat had met Sidhu on March 10. After the meeting, Sidhu had said, "Was summoned by Harish Rawat ji. Had a cordial meeting." For the past several weeks, party circles have been abuzz with the speculation that Sidhu could be re-inducted into the state cabinet with some key portfolios. There have also been talks of the possibility of appointing him as party state unit president. Notably, both leaders had not been on best of terms. The tension between Singh and Sidhu had come out in the open in May 2019 when the CM blamed the former cricketer for "inept handling" of the Local Government Department, claiming it had resulted in "poor performance" of the Congress in urban areas in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.Sidhu was stripped of key portfolios in a cabinet reshuffle, after which he resigned from the state cabinet.
The Punjab Police on Tuesday registered a case over a social media post, saying it tarnished the image of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and carried a photograph of a woman without her permission. The case was lodged against unidentified people after state Congress general secretary Sandeep Sandhu gave a written complaint in this regard to the Director, Bureau of Investigation, police said. Sandhu sought a thorough investigation into the "criminal and political conspiracy" unleashed by "unscrupulous and disgruntled elements" to tarnish the reputation of the chief minister through the defamatory message shared on WhatsApp and other platforms.
Sandhi said the role of political opponents of the chief minister in spreading the derogatory message ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections cannot be ruled out. He said the message contained defamatory and derogatory insinuations against the CM and the woman from Malerkotla, who happens to be an acquaintance of a relative of the chief minister. The Congress leader termed the message as "offensive, salacious and repulsive", clearly circulated for "character assassination" of the chief minister. The message is being made viral with the sole intent to defame the CM, he said in the complaint, adding that the woman's photograph has been picked from her social media account without her permission.
Pointing out that the use of the woman's photograph "tantamount to invasion of privacy which is a fundamental right", Sandhu urged the Director, Bureau of Investigation, to get the matter investigated from the cyber cell to trace its origin. The case has been lodged under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 4 and 6 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 and under provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
(editor@dailyworld.in)