Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh slammed Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu after he hugged Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa during Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s oath-taking ceremony, PTI reported.
“Everyday our jawans are getting martyred. To hug their Chief General Bajwa…I am against this. The fact is that the man should understand that our soldiers are being killed every day,” he told news agency ANI.
“My own regiment lost one major and two jawans a few months ago and every day somebody is being shot. Whether the man who pulled the trigger is to blame or the man who gives the order which is the chief, and the chief is General Bajwa,” he added.
“To say that ‘I don’t know General Bajwa’…it is written on their uniform. That’s wrong for him (Sidhu) to have shown the affections he did for the Pakistan Army Chief. As far as attending the swearing-in ceremony is concerned, he went there in his personal capacity so it has nothing to do with us. About him being seated next to the PoK President, maybe he (Sidhu) didn’t know who he was,” he said.
As far as attending the swearing-in ceremony is concerned, he went there in his personal capacity so it has nothing to do with us. About him being seated next to the PoK President, maybe he (Sidhu) didn’t know who he was: Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh on #NavjotSinghSidhu pic.twitter.com/H0vsElQNAm
— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2018
In response, Sidhu defended himself by saying, ““If someone (Bajwa) comes to me and says that we belong to the same culture and we’ll open Kartarpur border on Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th Prakash Parv, what else I could do?”
Sidhu said he received a lot of love from the people of Pakistan while crossing over to India through the Wagah border. “I am overwhelmed by the love I received here,” he said and said that it was his wish that there should be peace between the two countries.
When inquired about reviving cricket ties between the two, he said, “I am in favour of resuming cricketing ties. It is a good idea if IPL and PSL winners have a clash.”
Earlier, while talking to reporters after his arrival to Pakistan, Sidhu said he had come to the country “with a message of love” to become a part of Khan’s happiness.
He said he was saddened by the demise of former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who he recalled had started the friendship bus service between the two countries. He said he had brought a Kashmiri shawl as a gift for the PM-in-waiting.
Senior BJP Leader Subramaniam Swamy slammed former cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday for his plan to travel to Pakistan to attend the swearing-in ceremony of PM-in-waiting Imran Khan. Swamy to news agency ANI said, “This visit would be a big blow to his political career, people will call it treachery and if he is mentally sound and stable he should not do the same.”
