Though the court’s decision sentencing Sidhu has been widely reported by the media, the general public is not fully aware of the role played by the top ruling Congress and Akali leaders in propping up Sidhu ignoring his past and also, knowingly or unknowingly, ignoring reports about his mega corrupt practices in ‘selling’ jobs as Chairman of Punjab Public Service Commission. The murky Sidhu saga needs telling.

It all started in 1995-1996 when after the assassination of the chief minister Beant Singh in a bomb blast by the terrorists outside the Punjab and Haryana Civil Secretariat’s exit gate on August 31, 1995, Harcharan Singh Brar took over as chief minister (31.8.1995—21.9.1996). Like the feudal era landlords, he had a great liking for sycophants. This weakness earned him the stigma of appointing Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu, a Chandigarh-based journalist as Chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission. Sidhu was the correspondent of The Hindu, the newspaper for which Brar had a great liking. Sidhu’s write-ups on Punjab used to be full of praise for Brar.

After the Akali-BJP assumed power in 1997, the chief minister Parkash Singh Badal tried to persuade the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to appoint Sidhu as a member of the Union Public Service Commission. Vajpayee, however, did not respond to his repeated requests. The situation calls for a detailed narration of the Sidhu’s cash-for-jobs scam case.

It was during Sidhu’s tenure as Chairman of PPSC that the country witnessed its biggest money-for-jobs scam. Reports soon started circulating in the corridors of power that under Sidhu, the PPSC would select candidates even for high government posts usually on considerations other than merit.

The unprecedented scale on which Sidhu’s money-for-jobs scandal was being operated came to light during Capt. Amarinder Singh-led 2002-2007 government. Capt. Amarinder Singh who had earlier resigned from the Congress in protest against the 1984 Operation Blue Star and started taking active part in Akali politics had rejoined the Congress and later was appointed President of the state Congress.

After assuming chief ministership in the wake of the Congress victory in the 2002 elections, Capt. Amarinder Singh sent an emissary to Ravi Sidhu to ask him to resign from the chairmanship of the Punjab Public Services Commission. Sidhu refused. He pulled out a copy of the Indian Constitution from his book shelf and showing it to the Chief Minister’s emissary said that he could be removed from the PPSC’s chairmanship only through impeachment by the Parliament and not under government’s pressure.

Ravi Sidhu had an intriguing knack of cultivating ruling political bosses and senior bureaucrats. After the Akali Dal had come to power in 1997, Sidhu whose term was to end soon was able to establish a rapport with the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. In 2001, Badal wrote two letters to the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, talked to him on telephone and also met him personally to request him to appoint Ravi Sidhu as a member of the Union Public Service Commission. In his last letter to Vajpayee on December 26, 2001, Badal wrote that “Sidhu’s appointment as member of UPSC would be very much in the interest of the people of Punjab and the border State particularly at this critical juncture. I hope you will consider my request sympathetically, as it is personally and politically important to me”.

Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh who had been receiving complaints against Ravi Sidhu was annoyed by his “insulting” response to his emissary’s request to resign. Sometime later, the Vigilance Bureau raided Ravi Sidhu’s official residence. A bag allegedly containing bribe money was recovered from his house by the Vigilance team. A corruption case was registered against him and he was arrested. In subsequent raids, huge amounts of money, some people estimated it to be in several crores, were recovered from his Bank lockers. TV viewers will never be able to erase from memory the images of high denomination currency notes tumbling out of one of his Bank lockers when Vigilance Bureau men opened it.

It was alleged that Sidhu took huge amounts of bribe, often allegedly ranging from Rs.30 lakh to Rs.75 lakh, for selecting a candidate for government job. He, however, obliged the ruling political bosses by selecting their nominees, many on considerations other than merit.

The Sidhu episode ushered in the trend in the country of ruling politicians getting their favourites appointed as members of the State Public Service Commission thus turning the important constitutional institution into an instrument of corruption for getting government jobs for their undeserving favourites.

Sidhu must be cursing his malevolent stars for not escaping jail as the prosecution case was based on strong evidence and the witnesses did not turn hostile which usually happens when the mentors of the accused are in power. Badal heading the Akali-BJP government had come to power in 2007.

It may not be irrelevant to recall that the disproportionate assets case against the members of the Badal family filed by the Capt. Amarinder Singh government in 2002 was pending in the Mohali court in 2007 and the Badals got acquittal mainly because most prosecution witnesses who were government officials, had turned hostile.

The Sidhu episode symbolizes that corruption has become the religion of the ruling class and constitutional institutions its victim. (IPA Service)