Sidhu’s hug to Pakistan army chief not a nice gesture: CM
chandigarh — Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday said his Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s hug to Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa in Islamabad was “not a nice gesture and was completely avoidable”.
Sidhu should have avoided indulging in such a gesture when Indian soldiers are getting killed every day on the borders, the chief minister told reporters here.
“I think that was wrong for him to have shown the affection he did for the Pakistani army chief. After all, it is the army chief who gives orders to kill, with soldiers merely following the order,” the chief minister said. “Bajwa is responsible for the deaths of our soldiers and Sidhu should not have shown such niceties towards him,” Amarinder Singh said.
As for Sidhu sitting next to Pakistan-administered Kashmir president Masood Khan at the swearingin of Imran Khan as Prime Minister of Pakistan, Amarinder Singh said that the former cricketer “possibly did not know who he was and in any case the seating arrangement was not in his hands”.
The chief minister, however, dismissed opposition’s demand for Sidhu’s resignation.
As for Sidhu’s visit to Pakistan
for the swearing-in ceremony, Amarinder Singh said it was in his personal capacity due to his close relations with Imran Khan from their cricketing days.
Sidhu, who returned from Pakistan on Sunday, was the only Indian, who attended Khan’s swearingin ceremony on an invitation by the cricketer-turned-politician.—