Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been at the receiving end of heavy criticism from BJP ever since he visited Pakistan PM Imran Khan's swearing-in ceremony. The cricketer-turned-politician was under severe backlash for hugging Pakistan Army chief general Qamar Javed Bajwa during the ceremony. Defending his action, Sidhu said that the hug should not be seen in the bad light.
Sidhu claimed that he sat beside President of PoK Masood Khan during the oath-taking ceremony only because he was asked to. "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," Sidhu was quoted as saying by ANI.
"If someone 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?", the Congress leader said about hugging Pakistan Army chief general.
The Congress leader informed the local media that Qamar Javed Bajwa has assured him about opening a corridor for Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara in Pakistan on Guru Nanak Dev ji's 550th birth anniversary.
BJP and other parties had condemned Sidhu's visit and termed it as 'shameful.' Sidhu was the only Indian who attended Imran Khan's oath-taking ceremony. The BJP had questioned his decision to hug Pakistan Army chief and had even asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi whether he would suspend Sidhu from the party.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also reacted to Sidhu hugging Bajwa. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Singh said that it was wrong for Sidhu to have shown the affection towards the Pakistani Army chief.
(With ANI Inputs)
