Sidhu gets earful from Shiv Sena for hugging Pak Army chief

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, August 20

The Shiv Sena on Monday hit out cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu for hugging Pakistan's army chief General Javed Bajwa during his visit to Pakistan for the oath-taking ceremony of its new Prime Minister Imran Khan.

"Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan where he hugged Pakistan's army chief is the height of shamelessness," Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna said in an editorial on Monday. The newspaper noted that Sidhu chose to visit Pakistan even as other former cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev turned down the invitation. The newspaper likened Sidhu's visit to that of a frog that jumps around during the monsoons.

Sidhu, who is a minister in the Punjab government, should now contest from Pakistan since he has so much
affection for it, Saamna said. Tongue in the cheek, it further that Sidhu has already received an offer from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf party to contest elections from that country.

Saamna, which has been taking pro-Congress positions of late, also accused Sidhu of embarrassing Congress party president Rahul Gandhi by his visit to that country. "Mani Shankar Aiyar and Shashi Tharoor regularly get Rahul Gandhi into trouble by talking nonsense and Sidhu has also joined them," Saamna wrote.

The Shiv Sena mouthpiece also blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not doing anything to stop Sidhu from attending Imran Khan's oath-taking ceremony.

"The prime minister who claims to take strong action could easily have banned anyone from visiting Pakistan but he didn't," Saamna said. The editorial further rubbed it in by noting that Modi himself had set the trend by visiting Pakistan and hugging its former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. "They called it Modi's masterstroke. So how could they stop Sidhu now," Saamna wondered.

The write-up said BJP's response to Sidhu hugging the Pakistan army chief “was muted” even though those who criticised the central government's demonetisation drive two years ago were called “anti-national”.