CHANDIGARH: Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu who had sparked major controversy after he hugged Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa at the swearing-in-ceremony of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and defended his gesture. But Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has not taken it lightly and said that the hugging the army chief was not a nice gesture and was completely avoidable.
Sidhu said after returning to India via the Attari-Wagah border when questioned on sitting besides President of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) Masood Khan in the front row at the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan in Islamabad, he said," 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.’’
When asked on hugging Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Sidhu said," If someone (Bajwa) 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 I could do?’’
But Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today said hugging the Pakistani Army Chief was not a nice gesture and was completely avoidable. Sidhu should have avoided indulging in such a gesture when
Indian soldiers were getting killed every day on the borders. After all, it is the Army Chief who gives the
orders to kill, with the soldiers merely following the same.
Pakistan’s Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa is responsible for the deaths of our soldiers and Sidhu should not have shown such niceties towards him, said Amarinder.
As for Sidhu sitting next to the PoK president, Amarinder said the Punjab minister possibly did not know who he was and in any case the sitting arrangement was not in his hands.
Amarinder, however, dismissed the Opposition demand for Sidhu’s resignation as not important.
As for Sidhu going for Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony, it was in his personal capacity due to his close relations with the former cricketer from their cricketing days, said Amarinder, in response to
another question.