Navjot Sidhu thanks Imran Khan; bats for dialogue to defuse tension

NEW DELHI: Thanking Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan''s announcement on the release of Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan, Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday said the "goodwill gesture is a cup of joy for a billion people".

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 28

Thanking Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's announcement on the release of Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan, Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday said the "goodwill gesture is a cup of joy for a billion people".

"Every noble act makes a way for itself... your goodwill gesture is ‘a cup of joy’ for a billion people, a nation rejoices...I am overjoyed for his parents and loved ones," Sidhu said in a tweet.

@ImranKhanPTI Every noble act makes a way for itself... your goodwill gesture is ‘a cup of joy’ for a billion people, a nation rejoices...
I am overjoyed for his parents and loved ones.
— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) February 28, 2019

Earlier, the Congress leader took a line independent of his party on the prevailing security situation in the country and batted for peace as the sole solution to terror.

In a statement titled “We have a choice” which Sidhu released on Twitter he echoed the need for a dialogue to resolve the ongoing Indo-Pakistan conflict.

“The solution to terror is peace, development and progress, not unemployment, hatred and fear,” Sidhu said a day after his friend and Pakistan PM Imran Khan talked peace and invited India for a dialogue amid escalations across the border.

The Congress, meanwhile, snubbed Sidhu’s “dialogue” take on the Indo-Pakistan dialogue, saying “there’s a time to act and there’s a time to talk”.

“If honourable Navjot Singh Sidhu has an opinion, it’s his personal opinion. It’s not the opinion of the Congress. The time is not conducive for a dialogue”, said Manish Tewari.

Sidhu, who earlier embarrassed the Congress with his line that nations cannot be blamed for the actions of a few, reiterated his stand and said, “I stand by my deeply held principle that a community cannot be blamed for the actions of a few.”

Commenting on the border conflict, Sidhu said on both sides of the border tacticians are planning the worst, but “while it is easy to think the worst for the other that does not make us safer”.

Going all out to seek a dialogue between India and Pakistan Sidhu said “fear has been among us these last few days an unwelcome guest".