NEW DELHI: Cricket start-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was embroiled in a controversy over his comment about Prime Minister Imran Khan after he crossed the Kartarpur Corridor to pay obeisance at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur town on Saturday, the Times of India reported.
Members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fiercely objected to Sidhu describing Khan as his “bara bhai (elder brother)” while talking to Kartarpur Corridor Project Management Unit Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Muhammad Latif who welcomed the president of Indian National Congress’ Punjab chapter on behalf of the prime minister.
The party targeted Sidhu and INC leader Rahul Gandhi and also raised the issue of Sidhu hugging Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa during his visit to Pakistan for Khan’s swearing-in ceremony in August 2018.
During an interaction with the media later, Sidhu was very clear he had nothing to say. “Let BJP say whatever it wants,” he said.
Sidhu’s short visit via the 4.5-kilometre visa-free corridor had already led to speculation of a rift between Sidhu and chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi as the former was not included in the delegation that accompanied the latter to the gurdwara on November 18.
Highlighting the immense trade potential between Pakistan and India during his interaction with the media, Sidhu said this could guarantee economic prosperity for both countries.
Vajpayee bus visit to Lahore
“I request that if you want to change lives in Punjab, we should open the borders (for cross-border trade). Why should we go through Mundra Port, a total of 2,100 km? Why not from here, where it’s only 21 km (between Amritsar and Lahore),” he said.
“When Karachi-Mumbai route can be opened for the rich, why can’t the Lahore-Amritsar route be opened for common Punjabis? Why shouldn’t the whole of Punjab not visit Nankana Sahib? Why should tourism not be promoted?” Sidhu questioned as he promoted religious and medical tourism between the two neighbouring nations.
He recalled the 1999 visit of the then India Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lahore on a bus and said that it had opened a “passage of love and peace” between two countries.
He said spiritual, religious, and medical tourism had the capacity to change the destinies of nations. Sidhu also talked about the opening of Hindu temples in Pakistan. “If the life of Punjab has to change then trade and medical tourism has to begin,” he said and praised Khan as “an intellectual that would think about these issues”.
Once both Punjabs start trading, they would achieve prosperity in no time, he said. “If this happens, both Punjabs, and both nations will progress within six months as much as they should have in 60 years. It’s a golden opportunity to change the lives of people. I request (Narendra) Modi sahib and Khan sahib to open the doors. Trade has a $275,000 crore potential,” Sidhu explained.
Accompanied by senior Congress leaders and ministers, including Pargat Singh, Aruna Chaudhary, Mohinder Singh KP, Kulbir Singh Zira, and Amit Vij, Sidhu also gave an example of the European Union as he advised people to take lessons from history.
Innumerable lives, he said during his press meet at Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, a video of which he uploaded on his Twitter and Facebook accounts, were lost during war between European countries.
“But when war ended, these countries not only opened their borders on single visa but also introduced a single currency Euro which is one of the strongest now,” he said.
