The much-talked-about fall of cricketer-turned-humourist-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu is matched only by his meteoric rise in politics. Cooling his heels in jail for a road rage case dating back to 1988, the former Indian opener has been in the news ever since he joined politics. He started out with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and then switched over to the Congress following differences with the saffron leadership over the issue of alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal.
Sidhu, known for his one-liners and couplets with a Desi touch, has been controversy’s favourite child. During his cricketing days, he had problems adjusting to younger players in the Indian dressing room. Then came the road rage case, which still continues to haunt him. His stint at the Kapil Sharma show was also not free from controversies.
But it is his political career that has attracted a lot of media attention right from the beginning. A man with an oversized ego, he fell out with BJP and SAD leaders of Punjab who found his vaulting ambitions hard to digest. Although his move to the grand old party was smooth considering his propensity for controversies, he had to face a lot of criticism for singing paeans of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who he had been lambasting as a BJP leader for a long time.
A maverick in politics, Sidhu has been completely unpredictable. This is the reason both Congress and BJP leaders have been cautious about reacting to his sentencing in the road rage case. His over-ambitious nature has also been a hindrance to his growth as few people would ally with a person who can go to any extent to fulfil his ambitions. He was the person responsible for the ouster of Captain Amarinder Singh as the chief minister of Punjab. His antics also contributed to the decline of the Congress in Punjab. The party lost the assembly elections held earlier this year with many of its veterans, including Sidhu himself, biting the dust.
While his fellow Congress colleagues describe him as volatile and unpredictable, BJP leaders thank him sarcastically for ensuring a ‘Congress-mukt’ (Congress-free) Punjab. Many also marvel at the complete transformation of a quiet and timid boy, which Sidhu was in his school days, into a grandiloquent, boisterous and acerbic politician who has ended up making enemies across the political spectrum.
If Sidhu has to remain afloat in politics, he must change his attitude towards both friends and foes after coming out of jail. The sentencing in the road rage case has taken a huge toll on him. It has dented his public image and also demoralized his supporters. It is time he realized that in order to be successful in politics, he must learn the art of keeping his oversized ego in check. He will have to pay too heavy a price if he refuses to learn from his mistakes.
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