Amidst under severe fire from all quarters, Congress minister Sidhu appeared to brazen it out his decision of visiting Pakistan. We had earlier reported how Sidhu was heard talking about the special plane that was arranged by Rahul Gandhi for him, days before he left for Pakistan. Now, speaking to ANI, Sidhu has reiterated that he was granted the nod of approval to visit Pakistan from the Congress central leadership.
Sidhu said this in response to questions about Punjab Chief Minister saying that Sidhu should have refrained from going to Pakistan.
Navjot Sidhu on Punjab CM saying he asked Sidhu to not go to Pakistan: Ok, but atleast 20 Congress leaders asked me to go, Central leadership asked me to go. Punjab CM is like my father, I told him that I had already promised them(Pakistan) that I will go pic.twitter.com/zx2oUf8UII
— ANI (@ANI) November 30, 2018
However, this comes in sharp contrast to the Congress party’s claim that Siddhu went to attend Kartarpur Corridor’s groundbreaking ceremony on the basis of his personal friendship with Pak PM Imran Khan. Congress had earlier claimed that Sidhu had gone to Pakistan in his ‘personal capacity’.
Punjab CM Amarinder Singh had already expressed his displeasure on Siddhu’s visit to the ceremony. CM Amarinder Singh said, “ I asked him to reconsider his decision to visit Pakistan but yet he went.”
Blaming Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism in India, CM Singh said, “I will not allow terrorism to grow in Punjab. For the first time, there were some terrorists from Kashmir trying to establish logistics base in Punjab. Pakistan is using these terrorists to execute their nefarious plans, but we won’t permit it.” CM Amarinder Singh rejected the invite citing continuous occurrence of terror activities sponsored by Pakistan in India.
Facing flak for being snapped with a known Khalistani terrorist Gopal Singh Chawla, Siddhu appeared in a defensive mode to justify his visit. He said, “ thousands of photos were clicked in Pakistan, I don’t know who is a Khalistani terrorist and who is not.”
On one hand, Congress ministers claim that Sidhu went in the Kartarpur corridor ceremony in his personal capacity. On the other hand, Sidhu was heard claiming that Rahul Gandhi had sent him a personal plane to aid his visit to Pakistan. Amid such contrasting claims, it’s hard to interpret Congress’ true stance and it is becoming increasingly difficult for Congress and Rahul Gandhi to maintain that Sidhu’s visit to Pakistan and his shenanigans while in Pakistan did not have the sanction of the highest leadership of Congress including Rahul Gandhi.
