Navjot Sidhu: Bure din jane wale hain aur Rahul Gandhi aane wale hain

With Congress cruising ahead in the three major state Assembly Elections, Punjab minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu said “bure din jane wale hain”, and potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his earlier assurance of “ache din aane wale hain (good days are ahead)”. This was the slogan of the saffron party ahead of the 2014 General Elections.

Congress has lost only one state — Mizoram — to local party Mizo National Front (MNF) while it was en route to resounding victories in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Telangana belonged to KC Rao’s TRS.

Navjot Sidhu, in his customary style, said, “Bure din jaane wale hain aur Rahul Gandhi aane wale hain… kuch hi samay baad Lal Qile pe jhanda fehrane wale hain (Bad days will go away and Rahul Gandhi will unfurl the national flag at Red Fort)”.

Asked whether Congress president will take over as the Prime Minister after the 2019 general elections, Sidhu was blunt. “Why not? Rahul Gandhi is going up while Narendra Modi is going down. Public sab janti hai (people can see through). The results have given us hope. Voters have laid the foundation… all roads lead to Red Fort now,” Sidhu was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Navjot Sidhu, who was with BJP before switching allegiance to Congress, has been constantly attacking PM Modi and BJP on several issues like controversial Rafale deal and farmers’ suicide. “The wave in favour of Narendra Modi in 2014 that had helped the BJP come to power with a comfortable majority has turned out to be ‘poisonous’ for the common man,” Sidhu stated.

The former cricketer also accused the Prime Minister of acting like a puppet of the industrialists. “The prime minister is a ‘katputli (puppet)’ of capitalists. If a farmer fails to repay a loan of Rs 1 lakh, the government beats drums. But when (industrialists) Adani and Ambani do not repay Rs 1.5 lakh crore, you do ‘pappi-jhappi’ with them (hug them),” Sidhu said.

The Punjab minister didn’t mince his words over unemployment and the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. “When Rafale jets will come from France and bullet train from Japan, what will people do here? They will fry pakodas (fritters),” Mr Sidhu said in reference to the NDA government’s move to purchase 36 ready-to-fly fighter jets from France and the agreement with Japan for the bullet train project.

ALSO READ: Navjot Sidhu takes u-turn on his words; tweets Rahul Gandhi never sent him to Pakistan