Sidhu sticks to his guns, defends ‘capt remark’
JAIPUR : Under fire from his cabinet colleagues who are pressing for his resignation over his jibe at Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday defended his remark saying he has done nothing wrong.
“This is politics. I am accountable to my conscience. I have utmost respect for my chief minister. What I said was that Rahul Gandhi is my captain —is there something wrong in it? Let anybody deny that Rahul Gandhi is not our captain. Let him (Amarinder) deny that Rahul Gandhi is not his captain,” he said in an interview to Hindustan Times.
Sidhu’s remark came on a day when more Punjab ministers targeted him and asked him to apologise to the CM.
“What Sidhu said about Capt sahib is unfortunate. He (Amarinder) is our undisputed leader. He is captain of the party in the state. Such things should not have been said by him,” said women and child development and transport minister Aruna Chaudhary.
Defending his decision to go to Pakistan for the Kartarpur corridor groundbreaking, Sidhu said: “He (Amarinder) did not go to Pakistan for his own reasons. If he does not want to go, it doesn’t mean others should not go, pilgrims should not go. I respect his opinion, he is an elder. That does not mean that if I have given a word and my friend (Imran Khan) has called me, I will not go.”
On being asked whether there was any feud between him and Amarinder, he said: “This is absolute nonsense. Have I ever challenged him? Have I ever said, ‘I will not do this or that’? This feud is being created for political convenience.”