Sidhu attacks BJP, says he was told to keep off Punjab
This, he said, was the main reason he had resigned his Rajya Sabha membership.
New Delhi: Navjot Singh Sidhu broke his silence on Wednesday and in an angst-ridden speech full of Urdu couplets accused his party, the BJP, of forcing him to stay away from Punjab. This, he said, was the main reason he had resigned his Rajya Sabha membership.
“I was asked to stay away from Punjab,” he declared. Mr Sidhu then gave vent to his rage through his now famous short poems — “Kaise chhor de Navjot Singh Sidhu apni jad, kaise chhor de Navjot Singh Sidhu apna watan...”
Punjab is my priority, says Sidhu
He reminded the media how Atal Behari Vajpayee as Prime Minister had asked him to contest at short notice. Then, taking a dig at the present dispensation, he said, “Then the Modi wave came... it sank not just the Opposition but Sidhu as well.”
Mr Sidhu said Punjab is his “priority” and, like those rashtrabhakt (patriotic) birds, he could never leave Punjab. Trying to drive home his love for his state, he narrated a story of two “rashtrabhakt” birds perched on a burning tree.
“Ud jao pakshiyon, jab pankh tumhare saath (Fly away, birds, you have wings), people screamed,” Sidhu said, and then, pointing at the media, he asked if they knew what the birds replied. “Phal khaye is briksh ka, ab yehi hamara dharm, jiye isi ke saath, mare isi ke sang (We have eaten the fruit of this tree. We will live with it and die with it).”
He said that this was the fourth time the BJP had asked him to leave Punjab. “If this would have been the first time, I would have tolerated it, but this was the fourth time they asked me to leave Punjab, and I won’t do that,” he said.