Chandigarh: Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu seems to have decided to continue his sojourn from active politics, announcing the launch of a YouTube channel Wednesday.
The channel, Navjot Sidhu Official, will reflect the lesser known aspects of his personality, the former MP told mediapersons in Amritsar. “Very few people have lived my kind of varied rainbow life. I want others to know about it and spread what I have learnt,” he said, adding that there would be “absolutely no” space for politics on his channel.
“Politics gave me immense satisfaction, but cricket commentary gives me happiness. In politics, I am dependent (on others) … and have limitations, boundaries…but in other aspects of my life, I am independent..and with no limits,” said Sidhu, who has been busy as a senior commentator for the IPL matches for the past one month.
Accompanied by his daughter Rabia, Sidhu said the channel would start functioning from all social media platforms from Wednesday, a day he had chosen because it was blessed. “It’s Akshaya Tritaya, and I am starting something close to my heart and with the help of those who are close to me.”
The channel, he said, would focus on motivational talks, cricket, fitness, apparel, spirituality, meditation and lifestyle. “Anything and everything that I have to share with an aim to inspire others.”
Sidhu, who has been away from active politics for over a year following his wife’s illness, talked about the journey had taught him. “I received lakhs of calls from people wanting to know about cancer. I realised how much people wanted to know everything. That’s how the idea of the channel emerged,” he said.
He said the abiding theme of his channels would be that “all men are brethren” and added that “the world is one family”. “I am a changed Sidhu,” he told media persons when asked about his return to active politics.
When asked if politics in Punjab was going in the right direction, Sidhu said that the people would answer the question. “For me, politics was not a profession. I have never earned a paisa from politics. I have earned from cricket commentary and in the show business, from Bigg Boss. This channel is also an attempt to make myself self-sufficient. But unfortunately for many politics is a profession,” he added.
The 61-year-old said he had always tried to suggest “reforms and solutions” but there was rarely any follow up on them.
Not only did he serve as the Punjab Congress chief during the 2022 polls, Sidhu has been a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Amritsar, a Rajya Sabha MP, and an MLA from Amritsar East. Sidhu was replaced by Amrinder Singh Raja Warring as the Congress state chief following the Punjab elections.
Last year, he had campaigned for a few Congress candidate hopefuls. He was also replaced by Congress MP Jasbir Singh Dhimpa as in-charge of the Amritsar East assembly constituency.
Sidhu refused to take any questions about Punjab politics. “Do I need to prove it?” he said to a query on whether he was still with the Congress. ”Time will tell what next I’ll do in politics…But, I will not waste a single breath more (on answering these questions).”
On the Pahalgam attack and the closure of trade with Pakistan, he said a government elected by the masses is accountable for maintaining internal and external security and added that it need to answer these questions.
Sidhu had launched his YouTube channel ‘Jittega Punjab’ in 2020 during the Covid lockdown to put forth his political views on Punjab. “This channel will have no politics,” he asserted.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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