Moga, Punjab (June 16, 2014): Once he was a close to former Punjab CM and Amritsar MP Captain Amrinder Singh, former Hindustan Times journalist Harjinder Singh Sidhu is reappointed as Assistant Media Advisor to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal with immediate effect.
It was Sidhu who exposed various scandals committed by Akali government during 1997-2002 after captain Amrinder Singh became Punjab chief minister. He was one of the close journalists to captain.
In a bid to stop news stories against akali-BJP government in major news papers, Sukhbir Badal managed to “induct” senior The Tribune reporter Jungvir Singh and then Sidhu as media advisors in September 2013.
A spokesman of state government said keeping in the view the services rendered by Sidhu in the past, the Punjab government decided to re-appoint him in the capacity of Assistant Media Advisor to the Deputy CM. Sidhu had resigned from this post in the first week of March in the run up to the parliamentary elections.
Harjinder Sidhu had been working with Hindustan Times as principal correspondent at Bathinda since September 2000 before his appointment as Assistant Media Advisor to Deputy CM in September last year.