Sidhu embraces Pak army chief, BJP says embarrassing

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 18

Navjot Singh Sidhu’s “behaviour” at the oath-taking ceremony of Imran Khan in Islamabad has earned him a sharp rebuke from the BJP, with his former party berating him for “hugging” Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa — a “culprit of India” — and sitting next to “so-called” president of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) Masood Khan.

“Sidhu should not have hugged Bajwa and should have refused to sit with Khan. By doing so, he has committed a heinous crime for which he is answerable to 125 crore Indians,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, attempting to corner him and the Congress on the issue.

“He (Sidhu) said General Bajwa sahib hugged me and said we want peace,” Patra said, adding it was clear that Congress leaders believed the Pakistan army chief more than they believed their own Army Chief from whom they had demanded proof of surgical strikes and “insulted” him.

“And what was he (Sidhu) thanking Pakistan for? For sending terrorists to India?” said Patra, asking Congress president Rahul Gandhi to suspend him from the party.

The BJP asked Gandhi whether it was he who had granted permission to Sidhu to attend the swearing-in.

Gen Bajwa, a Jat by caste like Sidhu, belongs to Gujranwala. In Pakistan, he is considered a proponent of peace.