There is a difference between cricket and politics. In cricket what you do is visible more often than not; in politics lot of what you really do is invisible more often than not.
Having upped the political volume in Punjab with his resignation from the Rajya Sabha, Navjot Sidhu can afford to remain invisible. After all, his wife Navjot Kaur is doing the talking for him. She says she is Navjot’s “chela”, or follower, and whatever he asks of her she will do. For now, what she appears to be doing is not doing something many had expected. She is not resigning from the SAD-BJP combine, which she has been criticising more often than most in the Opposition, despite being an “insider”. Her SAD-BJP party colleague Pargat Singh who had also criticised the government quickly got a suspension order. Even the Akali leadership’s strange double standards over party indiscipline perhaps have their own story to tell.
Now that is why Sidhu’s silence is all the more deafening. Over endless cups of chai by day and spirited drinks by evening, almost all permutations and combinations have been run through the Punjabi Election Processor. Will Sidhu formally resign from the BJP soon enough? Did he quit as MP because he was not accommodated in the ministerial expansion at the Centre? Will Sidhu really join AAP? If he does join AAP, will he be the CM face?
If Sidhu is to be projected as just the star campaigner, then why exactly would he be in the AAP camp at all? Will there be a new party that would eat into votes of AAP which would in turn eat into Congress votes - and thus make it a little likely for a combative SAD-BJP combine to be back in power? Will Navjot Kaur be the fighting face of the Sidhu family for AAP, and then vacate her Amritsar seat to make way for Sidhu to contest and stand a chance at leading Punjab? Will Sidhu have to face the uncertainty of working up the AAP ranks before he is given any assurance of being a CM possibility? Is Sidhu actually a better bet outside AAP than within it? There is an argument for every scenario, such is the flexibility of political logic.
Navjot Kaur says Sidhu has no options left but to join the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab. Punjab’s third front AAP is facing a major leadership crisis in the state. Bhagwant Mann, perhaps AAP’s most visible face, doesn't make the cut as a chiefministerial candidate in the perception stakes. Initially, speculation on Sidhu joining seemed to answer AAP’s leadership issues - that is, until Sidhu appeared in Delhi sporting a bright yellow turban - AAP's preferred colour - and chose to hide more than he revealed.
The footsoldiers of AAP, who are uneasy with the idea of an aggressive, fast-talking former cricketer convicted in a road rage killing being projected as the CM face, know they don't have much choice in the matter. In a contest where Congress will be led by Capt Amarinder Singh and the SAD-BJP combine by the Badal duo, AAP can’t afford to be weak at the top despite its strong grassroots support base - something the other parties are struggling with.
So much is the silence of the otherwise-motormouth Sidhu, that Arvind Kejriwal himself has had to step in to tweet: “Wud Navjot Sidhu ji join AAP - lot of rumours? Its my duty to put forward our side. We have greatest greatest regard for this ckt legend. He met me last week. Didn't put any pre-condition. He needs time to think. Lets respect that.He is a v gud human being n a ckt legend. My respect for him wud continue whether he joins or not”.
It’s still "whether he joins or not”.
So what exactly is Sidhu weighing before he breaks his silence? Perhaps he should know he would be attacked by the Congress for his “conviction in a road rage killing case” and that he would be portrayed as a hot-headed shallow leader against a mature, if not laidback, Captain Amarinder Singh. Sidhu’s wife has already made her opinion clear: “The case against Sidhu is not a criminal case, it is a case of roadrage and Amarinder has taken up propaganda against Sidhu”.
However, this thought did not prevent Capt Amarinder Singh from inviting Sidhu to join the Congress, an offer that stays open and perhaps more generous than before. He said they are both from Patiala, both are Sidhus and that Navjot’s father was a Congress supporter.
Sukhbir Badal has to fight a serious image problem of being perceived a bit more arrogant in the second term than he was in the first. And likely to be more so if Akali Dal gets lucky enough to bag a third one - something what Prashant Kishor, who is strategising for the Congress, claims is in the realms of impossibility.
So while Brand AAP does need Brand Navjot Sidhu, the subjective question of which brand brings value to the other is where the game is stuck. Both need the push they see in each other to give a shot at ambitions that might not play out otherwise. So while Navjot Singh Sidhu takes time to think and sense which way the wind is blowing, there will be deafening silence for a while more before the inevitable one liners and couplets are unleashed.
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