Being Sidhu: Living with Sidhuisms

The people of Ludhiana have no problems braving the cold for BJP star campaigner Navjot Singh Sidhu. The legal sword hanging over his head is invisible to them. The cricketer- turned-entertainer-turned-politician, has slowed down since last week. But in the long run-up to the year and when we met him, he was on election overdrive. A crowd puller known to shoot off his mouth, he is learning that propriety is the better part of political valour.

CNN-IBN’s Anuradha SenGupta met him.

Anuradha SenGupta: What was the theme of your rally speech?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: My theme was very clear that there have been hollow promises and no policies, which could take Punjab forward.

Anuradha SenGupta: If you were to give a message in the typical Sidhu way to the current Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, what would it be?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Trouble on weeds thrive in lack of attention. The Punjabi troubles have thrived on lack of attention. He has empowered the rich and pauperised the poor.

Anuradha SenGupta: How do you rate the Akali Dal-BJP alliance’s chances in the forth-coming elections?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I think 90 per cent of the people of Punjab are going to vote their resentment and not vote their appreciation.

Anuradha SenGupta: Is anti-incumbency what you are saying will help you?

Navjot Singh Sidhu:Yes, that is right. The notification took place about six or seven days ago and almost 15 people have joined the Akali Dal-BJP. Big leaders have joined the alliance and there will be more joining. It is a sinking ship. You desert a sinking ship.

Anuradha SenGupta: I believe when you were growing up as a boy or even when you were in collage, you were a completely different personality. Is it true?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I was a total introvert. If my teacher told me that I had to participate in a debate the next day then I would take a holiday for the next three days. I was scared of speaking in public. I understood the meaning of self-belief too late. It was only after I understood religion and started meditating that I knew its meaning. If I would have known what self-belief is then I would have started meditating earlier on in my career. I would have been a much better cricketer.

Anuradha SenGupta: What attracted you to religion? What was the turning point for you?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: The religious touch was given by my father. He used to tell me bedtime stories about Guru Gobind Singh, about Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Anuradha SenGupta: But you experienced religion later.

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Religion came later. I never used to understand the Gurbani when I read it so I used to read the Punjabi Tarjuman. But by chance, from my father’s library which had thousands of books, I got of hold of the The Eight Works Of Swami Vivekananda that has eight volumes. That turned my life on its head. I started breathing. I did breathing exercises and purified the body. I would meditate for hours early in the morning.

Anuradha SenGupta: When was this? How many years ago did this take place?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: This was when I gave up cricket in 1999. I started off in 1999 and about two-and-half months time the experiences started.

Anuradha SenGupta: Up to now you have worn several hats of that of a cricketer, commentator, a politician, an actor and overall entertainer. Which one of these do you feel most comfortable in?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I think cricket at times was a burden. It was never my dream but my father’s dream that I was supposed to realise and work on, that he had visualised for me. So it was kind of imposed on me. Commentary was a sheer joy because I backed my originality. I came up with my own things and carved a niche for myself.

Anuradha SenGupta: You have created a new language, isn’t it?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Yes, my guru Hasha Bogle told me, ‘Boss if you continue like this tumhara baazaar bandh ho jayega (your market will be closed).’ I then carefully gave it a thought within two-three weeks. All absurdity of conduct arises when people imitate others.

I don’t want to imitate others. I don’t want to be in a line of 200 hundred people ahead of me and be number 201. I want to be myself. I don’t want to be a carbon copy. I realised this and then that is when I started these Sidhuisms.

Anuradha SenGupta: When do you sit and think of these Sidhuisms? Do they just come extemporary or do you think of certain areas where you need to create a few of them?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: When you do live shows and you do live cricket, can anybody tell you what will happen in the match? It is like a machine gunfire when you sit in front of 300 hundred people. Everybody wants to ask a question. Can you be prepared for it?

You will not even have time to think. It is like a bullet from a shotgun. It is spontaneous. It has to come from the heart. I always say, ‘Dil se jo baat nikalti hai, asar rakhti hai’ or whatever comes from the heart, communicates.

Anuradha SenGupta: You are referring to a lot of things. So you do have a fantastic memory that you use?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I do have a phenomenal memory. Elephants often consult me.

Anuradha SenGupta: You think your timing lobs better off the field of cricket or then on the field of cricket.

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Absolutely right.

Anuradha SenGupta: Are you saying that in your career in cricket, you were not a happy man?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Nobody is happy forever. Trouble gives you an opportunity to discover your strength or lack of it. I am a trained sportsman. In the thick and thin of life and the ups and downs of life you have to take it in your stride. You have to take it on the chin and march on.

Sympathy is ultimately for the weak and the weak go to the cooking pot. Navjot Singh Sidhu has never looked for sympathy. I made 17 comebacks in the Indian cricket team. If the conclusion is to withdraw then—he who dallies is a dastard, he who doubts is damned. I don’t doubt myself.

Anuradha SenGupta: Was that quote your original or did you quote someone else?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: What ever it is, I will give you another one. Doubt creates a mountain, faith will either demolish that mountain or tunnel through it.

Anuradha SenGupta: You enjoy what you do don’t you?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: That is right. And that is the crux. I never used to enjoy. I never enjoyed the 35 years of my life particularly. It is not the load that breaks you but it is the way you carry it.

Anuradha SenGupta: Did you enjoy being an MP?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I enjoyed every bit of it. The kind of love and affection, it is amazing. If I have to say in chaste Hindi -Bure waqt mein insaan ka saaya bhi chod jaata hai (Even a shadow leaves a man facing adversity). Look how many people stand by me at this time of adversity. It is amazing. I am telling you I have never had so many people stand on my right and left side, and pray for me.

Anuradha SenGupta: When you resigned your seat recently, was it the first thought that came to your mind to do so? I think that you scored a lot of moral support.

Navjot Singh Sidhu: No, when you try to score points you do nothing. It will be hogwash. My father and Jaitley Sir tell me what is not morally correct cannot be politically correct. You can share your burdens with people. And that is what I have learnt in these seven to eight years of my life.

Anuradha SenGupta: You laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Let’s make a Sidhuism out of it. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Sleep and you snore alone. How do you like that? It was spontaneous. I couldn’t have mugged it. There was this instance where people said that behind every successful man is a woman. I thought about it and I said that behind every successful man there is a surprised wife.

Anuradha SenGupta: Is your family proud of your success?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I have let them down a couple of times. My word of honour that I will not go back to Patiala is suspicion that people had. They thought, ‘He is from Patiala, which is four or five hours away from here.’ My opposition camp said that I was an outsider and many other things. I had just said it spontaneously that I would not go to Patiala till I am MP. I can now go because I am no longer an MP. But I just feel that I can’t betray them.

Anuradha SenGupta: But why would do you something like that? It is like a Bhishma Pratigya. Is life all about these gestures, gimmicks and stunts?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: No, it is not a stunt. If it had been a stunt I would have quietly gone for two days and then come back. I can fall from a horse but I cannot fall in my own eyes. Who will pick me up?

Anuradha SenGupta: What I am saying is why say that you won’t go? Why make a grand gesture?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: It was not a grand gesture. It was something that I said and I stood by it.

Anuradha SenGupta: But it cost you something.

Navjot Singh Sidhu: It was a huge cost. I had to pay a huge price. My wife can’t walk. She is a nervous wreck. She can’t even latch the door. The party feels that she should fight from Amritsar.

Anuradha SenGupta: Will she be able to do it physically?

Navjot Singh Sidhu:It is her decision. She has asked for time.

Anuradha SenGupta: I have seen the impact that you had on the rally. Everybody who follows Punjab politics say that Sidhu is a crowd puller today. He is important to the BJP. If your political career continues with the momentum that it has currently, do you see yourself as Chief Minister of Punjab at some point? It is not an unreal possibility anymore, isn’t it?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Have you heard a song sung by Asha Bhosle that says Aage bhi jaane na tu, peeche bhi jaane na tu. Jo bhi hai bas yehi ek pal hai (You don’t know about the future or the past. Everything happens in the present). Let me put it into a Sidhuism. The past is a bucketful of ashes. No body built a reputation thinking about tomorrow. Between yesterday’s regret and tomorrow’s hope is today’s opportunity. Take it!

Anuradha SenGupta: When you are trying to be humorous, funny or even when you are plain speaking, there is a line of political correctness. Have you become politically correct since you have become a politician?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: If you are just truthful, you can never become politically correct. You have to disguise it. You have to camouflage it. I do not know whether I will be able to do it.

Anuradha SenGupta: I want to take you back to when you were a young boy. What were you reading? A lot of Sidhuisms that you hear sometimes seem like idioms, maybe Punjabi sayings, English sayings, and even film songs for that matter. All of them have a Sidhu twist

Navjot Singh Sidhu: When you go down to the village for example my village. You have the tayas and the tayis. They sit under the neem trees and chat for hours having lassi. They have a rustic humour and it is like a bomb. One of my best catch phrases on the Indian television was that the Indian team is a like a bicycle stand. You push one and they will all tumble down. I had heard it from a very close friend of mine who had talked about the Patiala team. I used it for New Zealand and everybody related to it. It is not that everything is mine.

Anuradha SenGupta: So you are giving credit to the land you belong to.

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Yes you are right. That is the rustic touch my humour.

Anuradha SenGupta: For the Indian team do you still stand by this, as I quote you, ‘There is light at he end of the tunnel for India. But it is that of an incoming train which will run them over.’ Are you still saying it?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I said that, but what I am saying for India today is –It is time to make hay while things are going haywire. And that is the appropriate thing.

When I said that India had about 90 runs to chase at that point of time in 10 overs with one wicket in hand. Somebody turned around and told me, ‘Is there light at the end of the tunnel?’

Now you have one wicket in hand and number nine or number 10 is batting and somebody talked about the light at the end of the tunnel. I in return said that it was the light of the incoming train that will run the team over. If you put words in my mouth and say that I said for the Indian team, then it is absolute nonsense. I never said it for them.

Anuradha SenGupta: What do you think about Sardar jokes? Do you think they are good? Do you have a favourite one or do you hate them?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: No, I don’t have a favourite one or anything like that. When I entertain people, I very rarely try to hurt someone at his cost.

Anuradha SenGupta: And it is not about stereotypes.

Navjot Singh Sidhu: No, it is not. Would you want to hurt someone and entertain others at his cost? That is what I hate doing.

Anuradha SenGupta: If I ask you to describe the Punjabi psyche today. How would you do it but in a politician’s view?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: The point I want to make about Punjab is that it is a martial clan. The Punjabis take pride in saying that they have a history of sacrifice. Punjabis have not compromised on values.

Anuradha SenGupta: The 1980s was a very turbulent time in Punjab. You were a young man then. When the Khalistan movement was under way, which Operation Blue Star followed, which was again followed by the assassination of a former Prime Minister and General Vidya of the army. Do you think that the Sikhs are at peace more than 20 years later?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Punjab is the only state that has overpowered terrorism. Terrorism has been prevalent in Ireland and so many other countries. It is prevalent in Kashmir.

Anuradha SenGupta: Are you saying that at one level the Sikhs are at peace.

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I would say that the Sikhs will only be at peace when the youth of Punjab are educated, when they are self reliant and when there are jobs for people. They will be at peace when the industry can set foot in Punjab and be firmly entrenched. They will be at peace when there are policies instead of promises and the economy will grow. I don’t think Punjab has a congenial environment for the economy to surge forward.

Anuradha SenGupta: When I saw you at the rallies, I couldn’t help but notice that young men were attracted to you. How would you explain to them what happened to you in 1988?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: Everything that is sub judice is not supposed to be commented on. Nobody has asked me. Respect is earned by good conduct. In fact 90 per cent of the people that you would talk to would project a different story that what happened was something different. I don’t want to get into it. I will submit completely to the Majesty of Law.

Anuradha SenGupta: When you were acquitted there was a sense that there was some political manipulation. Today when a Higher Court has convicted you, there is a sense again that it is a political manipulation. When there is so much of nudge-nudge and wink-wink around us, how do you submit to the Majesty of Law?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I have full faith in the majesty of law. I have never gone on the wrong side of the law. Whatever the Majesty of Law feels, will be correct. I personally feel that I will not encroach and transgress on this territory.

Anuradha SenGupta: The matter is sub judice and you don’t want to comment. However, if you want to give a message to the young people in the context of what happened, what would be?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: I would say that an accident is an accident. Anything done with intent and motive is something different.

Anuradha SenGupta: If I were to ask you to describe Navjot Singh Sidhu in Sidhuism as to where he is in life today, what would you say?

Navjot Singh Sidhu: The whole world is my country. All mankind are my brethren. And to do good is my religion.

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