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Saturday, September 18, 2021

it is not Cricket - Capt Amarinder steps down - accuses Sidhu of being closer to Pakistan

                                    Punjab crisis – perhaps is not to be seen as an internal party affair .. .. !!  - the first Chief Minister of Punjab in Independent India was - Gopi Chand Bhargava (from 15 August 1947 to 13 April 1949)  and twice later !!  .. ..

Experience is the comb that life gives you when you are bald; Age has been the perfect fire extinguisher for flaming youth.;  Beware of the naked man who offers you his shirt.;  A fallen lighthouse is more dangerous than a reef;  The ball went so high that it could brought an airhostess down with it;  Its very difficult to kill a man who is hell bent upon committing suicide!"; No one reads a book to reach the middle - its the end that matters ****

~ quotes from a Man, who first played in Ahmedabad in 1983, then at Chennai, then had to wait 5 long years for his next of his total of 51 tests.  In all he made 3202 test runs with 9 centuries and 4413 runs in 136 ODIs with 6 centuries.  For statistical reasons, he would well remember that Test in Dec 1983 – his 2nd – he made 20 – Gavaskar made 236* and Sidhu bowled his only over in Test Cricket.  -  Navjot Singh Sidhu – now in news !!   

More of Cricket but not what Navjot Sidhu played initially as strokeless wonder to raising as sixer hitting Sidhu –  ODI debut incidentally being in Chennai in Reliance World Cup match when India lost by a solitary run.    Back in Feb 1934, the 3rd test of the Series against Douglas Jardine’s England was hosted for the first time by Chepauk stadium, Madras.  England went on to win the match by huge 202 runs !   .. .. the debutant at that time was Yuvraj – not Yuvraj Singh of fame, but the Yuvraj of Patiala, Yadavenadra  Singh.   He was the Prince -  his father was the Maharaja of Patiala, a great patron of the game who donated the Ranji Trophy.   – He    scored 24 and 60 in his only test. He had been invited to tour England in 1932 but declined because of the pressure of state business. He led India in an unofficial Test against Jack Ryder's Australian team in 1935-36 and was one of the candidates to lead India on their tour of England in 1936. He was India's ambassador to Holland from 1971 until his death.

The Maharaja of Patiala was a maharaja in India and the ruler of the princely state of Patiala. The first Maharaja of Patiala was Baba Ala Singh (1695–1765). Yadavindra Singh who debuted at Chennai,  became the maharaja on 23 March 1938. He was the last independent maharaja, agreeing to the accession of Patiala State into the newly independent Union of India in 1947. On 5 May 1948, he became Rajpramukh of the new Indian state of Patiala and East Punjab States Union.

Now back to Sixer Sidhu,  Sidhu was elected to the Lok Sabha as a member from Amritsar in 2004 on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket; he later resigned, following his conviction in 2006. After the Supreme Court stayed his conviction, he successfully contested the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, defeating his Congress rival, State Finance Minister Surinder Singla, by 77,626 votes.  After 12 years, he moved to Congress .. ..  Navjot Singh Sidhu is an incompetent man, will be a disaster, said the outgoing CM  Amarinder Singh


Saying he felt humiliated, Captain Amarinder Singh stepped down as Punjab chief minister today. Earlier the Congress had called a legislature party meeting in Chandigarh after over 50 party MLAs from the state wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi seeking Amarinder's removal. The meeting was attended by observers Ajay Maken and Harish Choudhary along with the party's state in-charge Harish Rawat. The Congress has 80 MLAs in the 117-member state assembly.  Captain Amarinder Singh's resignation from the post of Punjab Chief Minister today evoked some strong reactions from a spectrum of political parties and leaders.

After resigning from the post of Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh went on to say that he will  oppose if Navjot Singh Sidhu is the Congress party's chief ministerial candidate, and added that he  was not angry at the Congress party's central leadership but felt "let down" and "humiliated".  Notwithstanding Mr Singh's strong opposition, Mr Sidhu was made Punjab Congress President a few weeks ago at the end of long and bitter feud. One of the major gripes of Congress MLAs was that it was impossible to meet the Chief Minister who surrounded himself with a coterie. It’s a charge that he faced in his previous tenure as well.   

Capt Amarinder Singh (born 11 March 1942), former royal  served as the 15th Chief Minister of Punjab.  An elected Member of the Legislative Assembly from Patiala,  he was also the president of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, the state division of the Indian National Congress.  He has also previously served as the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007. He, prior to resignation was  currently the oldest chief minister by age, serving any state in India.  His father (Yadvendra Singh mentioned earlier) was the last Maharaja of the princely state of Patiala. He has also served in the Indian Army from 1963 to 1966.  In 1980, he won a seat in the Lok Sabha for the first time.

Capt Amarinder was vociferous and bitterly critical of Sidhu -  "I will never allow that man [Sidhu] to come. He is an anti-national element. I will not allow him. He is too mixed up with Pakistan," Captain Amarinder Singh said. He then went on to recall Sidhu's speech at Kartarpur which was full of praise for Pakistan PM Imran Khan as well as the cricketer-turned-politician's controversial decision to hug Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, Qamar Javed Bajwa.


Capt Amarinder  was a very honourable man and his removal does not augur well for Punjab and for the Nation too !

 
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
18th Sept. 2021.

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