NOT THE RIGHT PLACE OR TIME

Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala was deliberately kept out of the media interaction with cricketerturned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday. Instead, party managers asked Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken to conduct the induction function. Effigies of Surjewala were burnt in various parts of his home state Haryana after he posed with the Congress manifesto for Punjab in which the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue was one of the key points. The SYL issue is a bone of contention between the two states. When Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur and former hockey captain Pargat Singh joined the Congress, Surjewala had cleverly avoided any controversy by leaving the venue immediately after the induction ceremony. Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh later spoke extensively on the SYL issue.