Akali Dal ridicules Sidhu, asks CM to sack him

Kuldip Bhatia

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Ludhiana, October 14

Taking strong exception to Local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s assertions at a literary fest in Kasauli, Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal (SAD-B) has upped the ante against him and asked Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to throw him out of his Cabinet for making such preposterous statements compromising the very spirit of India.

With regard to his controversial trip to Pakistan (to attend the oath ceremony of new prime minister Imran Khan), Sidhu has said that his visit to the neighbouring country was an excellent experience as the two nations had one language, one food-culture and one-people in contrast to the South India where different languages were spoken and one had to learn Tamil/Telugu to interact with people, besides eat different kind of food.

“In fact, what Sidhu indirectly meant was that visit to a distant part of his own country is a nightmare while Pakistan is like ones dreamland,” said SAD-B senior vice-president Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal.

Lambasting Sidhu for denigrating the diversity of India, its different regions, different style of dresses, music, food culture, languages and dialects, the SAD-B spokesperson said the minister must be made to pay and penalised for insulting the nation.

Grewal said Sidhu had become a self-styled spokesman and ambassador of Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan.

He had been praising him and Pakistan to skies the day-in and day-out while forgetting that the unity in diversity was the USP of India where people spoke different languages, lived in diverse cultures, different regions and climates while sharing the feeling of one nation and one people, he added.

The SAD-B leader asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to clarify whether it was his party’s policy to decry the cultural diversity ranging from Himalayas down to Kanyakumari and cherish one-language and one-food culture. If not, then Rahul should reign in such loose cannons in his party, he added.

Besides, Grewal also urged Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to question near idiosyncrasies of demagogue Sidhu and throw him out of his Cabinet to show that he was a real patriotic soldier, who tolerated no non-sense.