New Delhi: Congress leader and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has been put on steroid medication after continuous speeches during election rallies resulted in him damaging his vocal cords.
News agency ANI reported that Sidhu's office had confirmed the leader has been put under medication after he was diagnosed with damaged vocal cords. He is receiving steroids and injections while his office says he is in the process of making a quick recovery and will return to campaigning as soon as is possible. Sidhu has been named as Congress' star campaigner in several states but his role in Punjab - a state that votes on Sunday in the final phase of Lok Sabha election - was seen as crucial.
While his role in campaigning may have been crucial for Congress, Sidhu's recent speeches at election rallies had also been enormously controversial. The cricketer-turned-politician had targeted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a number of its leaders with remarks that were widely seen as either racist or sexist. Some were outrightly bizarre. Sidhu had compared PM Modi to a bride who only pretends to work before calling BJP leaders 'Black Englishmen' in a reference to India's colonial past. He had also called BJP leader Sambit Patra a frog who only pretends to care for women's rights.
Several political analysts in the past have said that Sidhu may have gradually become a source of embarrassment for Congress in general and Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh in particular. His past visits to Pakistan have also courted enormous controversy while his remark absolving Pakistan in the aftermath of Pulwama attack was widely slammed by politicians cutting across party lines.
