Poetic Navjot Singh Sidhu talks of anguish

Navjot Singh Sidhu, who recently resigned as a BJP member of the Rajya Sabha, said at a press conference here on Wednesday that Punjab was his “priority” and, like those “rashtrabhakt (patriotic)” birds, he could never leave Punjab. Trying to drive home his love for his state, he narrated a story of two “rashtrabhakt” birds perched on a burning tree. “Ud jao pakshiyon, jab pankh tumhare saath (Fly away, birds, you have wings), people screamed,” Sidhu said, and then, pointing at the media, he asked if they knew what the birds replied. “Phal khaye is briksh ka, ab yehi hamara dharm, jiye isi ke saath, mare isi ke sang (We have eaten the fruit of this tree. We will live with it and die with it).”

Mr Sidhu claimed this was the fourth time the BJP had asked him to leave Punjab. “If this would have been the first time, I would have tolerated it,” he said.

All his statements at the press conference were punctuated by his famous dialogues, short poems and Urdu couplets. Asking the BJP why he was being treated like this, Mr Sidhu offered a couplet: “Unhen ye fikr hai har dam nai tarz-e-jafa kya hai, hamen ye shauq hai dekhen sitam ki intiha kya hai. Gunah-gaaro men shaamil hain gunaahon se nahiin vaaqif ko jaante hain hum, khuda jaane khata kya hain.” In short, Sidhu said he wanted to see “where this injustice ended” and “God only knows what was his fault”.

Mr Sidhu made it clear that those who love their nation, they will keep sacrificing themselves.