Hardly an issue: Amarinder on Sidhu’s ‘my captain’ remark

CHANDIGARH : More than a week after the ‘my captain’ remark of Punjab local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu kicked up a political slugfest, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh broke his silence by calling it ‘hardly any issue’.

In an interview to a news channel, Amarinder batted for Sidhu and ticked him off too, all in the same breath. Responding to Sidhu’s remarks that Congress president Rahul Gandhi was his captain, Amarinder said, “This was hardly any issue to be raised as Sidhu had always treated me as a fatherly figure.”

He called Sidhu a likeable person with whom he had absolutely no problems with while running the government. “I shared warm ties with his parents. Me and Sidhu are not at loggerheads as reported by the media. Sidhu always speaks in a forthright manner and his only problem is that sometimes he shoots before he thinks,” Amarinder added.

He also stole the minister’s thunder by calling the Kartarpur corridor as a Pak army ‘conspiracy’. “The Sidhu affair is being unnecessarily hyped up and those raising it have clearly failed to see the ISI game plan,” he said, hitting out at the Akalis and the BJP central leadership.

Despite his advice not to visit Pakistan, Sidhu, however, went ahead due to his friendship with Imran Khan, and this was not unreasonable, he added.

Both Amarinder and Sidhu have been advised rest by doctors following health issues and have yet to break the ice after the row erupted.

CAPT ADDS SIDHU IS FORTHRIGHT, BUT AT TIMES SHOOTS BEFORE HE THINKS