‘Rubber doll’: Navjot Sidhu’s dig at Bhagwant Mann, Arvind Kejriwal

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday took a dig at Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann by calling him a “rubber doll”, claiming that “someone else is playing the game”. Alleging that the law and order situation in Punjab has “deteriorated drastically” under the newly elected Mann’s government, Sidhu questioned if the chief minister really did “care about Punjab”.

“Someone is playing the game but someone else is dancing and speaking. The person who is playing the game while sitting in Delhi is the masquerader and he is getting unmasked,” said Sidhu in an apparent dig at AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.

“Punjab’s chief minister has become a ‘rubber da gudda’ (rubber doll). Does he care about Punjab?,” news agency PTI quoted Sidhu as saying. Sidhu also alleged the Punjab government is using the police force to target those who raise their voice against Kejriwal.

“You are politicising the police force to use it for your own interests,” he said attacking the AAP government. “Whether it is ‘badlav’ (change) or ‘badla’ (vendetta)… vendetta politics has started,” he said.

His statements come a day after the Punjab Police visited the homes of former AAP leader Kumar Vishwas and Congress’s Alka Lamba and registered a case against them in connection with a case filed over “inflammatory statements” against Kejriwal.

Vishwas and Lamba were booked for promoting enmity by allegedly making false statements against Kejriwal, and accusing him of supporting separatists.

On Wednesday, the Punjab police visited Vishwas’s Ghaziabad residence to summon him to join the investigation within 48 hours. Both the leaders have been summoned on April 26.

Also read: Kumar Vishwas claims Punjab cops reached his house; gives warning to Bhagwant Mann

On February 16, Vishwas had triggered a controversy after he accused Kejriwal of wanting to “become the prime minister of Khalistan.”

The ex-AAP leader has been booked under Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act, besides various sections of the IPC including 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place etc), 505 (whoever makes, publishes, or circulates any statement, rumour or report), 120-B (criminal conspiracy).

(With inputs from PTI)