TIA WEB DESK
Amid criticism from different quarters including his chief minister Cap Amrender Singh, Congress leader and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu today defended his actions in Pakistan saying his act should not be seen in the bad.
Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, was under attack for hugging Pakistan Army Chief at the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan.
Speaking to the media, Sidhu said he was asked to sit next President of Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK) Masood Khan.
“If you’re invited as a guest of honour somewhere, you sit wherever you are asked to. I was sitting somewhere else but they asked me to sit there,” said Sidhu.
Justifying the hug, he said: “If someone 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 could I have done?”
Sidhu’s Pakistan visit to his cricketing contemporary Imran Khan’s swearing in ceremony kicked up a massive storm back home—first because he accepted the invitation, and then because he sat next to Masood Khan and hugged Bajwa. With agencies
Earlier as BJP attacks mount over his minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s visit to Pakistan and hugging Pak Army chief, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday said the cricketer-politician went in his “personal capacity”.
“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,” Singh said on the sidelines of a photo exhibition here.
Singh however was quick to call Sidhu’s act of hugging Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa “avoidable”.
“But as far as hugging the Pakistan Army Chief is concerned, I’m not in its favour. It was wrong of him to have shown affection towards the Pakistan Army Chief.”
The Punjab chief minister’s statements comes at a time when
BJP have excoriated Sidhu’s conduct in Pakistan, calling it a “betrayal of India”.