Day after Capt snub, Jakhar bats for Sidhu

CHANDIGARH : A day after Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s disapproval of local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu hugging Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan as prime minister, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar again sprang to the defence of the cricketerturned-politician.

In a statement, Jakhar lauded Sidhu’s initiative on the issue of getting passage to historic Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan, saying it was a long-pending demand of the Sikh community.

Defending the hug, Sidhu had said, “If someone (Bajwa) comes to me and says that we belong to the same culture and they’ll open passage to Kartarpur Sahib on Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary, what else I could do?” Though Sidhu had added that Amarinder too was keen on getting the corridor open, the latter chose to ignore his claim.

“It is all the more important in view of the upcoming 550th Prakash Parv celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev,” Jakhar said.

Since Sidhu has come under attack from the BJP for the hug, Jakhar also trained his guns on the saffron party asking it to clarify its stand on the Kartarpur corridor. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote a letter to Imran. When Dr Manmohan Singh as PM wrote such letters to Pakistan leaders, Modi taunted these as love letters. Modi should explain what he has written and how different

his letter is from those he referred to as love letters,” he said. Jakhar’s defence of Sidhu also shows the battlelines being drawn within the Punjab Congress.

SIDHU SHOULDN’T HAVE HUGGED MAN BEHIND ATTACKS: SUKHBIR

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday condemned Sidhu’s gesture, saying that Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa is responsible for terrorism in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. “I think Navjot Sidhu should have not hugged a person who is our enemy,” he said.