On Pakistan return, Sidhu asks who’s Chawla

ATTARI/CHANDIGARH: Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, on his return from Kartarpur Sahib, dismissed the controversy caused by his photograph with Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee general secretary Gopal Singh Chawla, a controversial pro-Khalistani separatist better known for his ties with Hafiz Saeed. Chawla had posted his photograph with Sidhu on a social networking site.

“Thousands of people met me every day in Pakistan and clicked photographs with me. How would I know who Chawla or Cheema is?” Sidhu said at Attari. “There was so much of love that people would come and meet me and click photographs wherever I went. Why so much hue and cry about it?”

He also told TOI that the controversy was created because of how he had been seated during the function. “These are pre-planned things (by the organisers). They have to decide where I have to be seated. Last time too, this was the matter,” he said.



'Kargil happened after PM Atal visit'

Despite claiming he was not interested in a credit war over the opening of the Kartarpur corridor, he said after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had gone to Lahore, Kargil conflict had taken place. Similarly, he said when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to meet his counterpart Nawaz Sharif there was a terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force base.

"When Sidhu went there (to Pakistan), there was a lot of hue and cry, but when I came back then Kartarpur Corridor happened," he said.

The Kartarpur Corridor would be operational in less than a year, said Sidhu. "They (the Pakistan government) have acquired 104 acres and will soon begin construction of hotels and other infrastructure. I am told that the corridor will be operational by the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Nanak in 2019."

He was very optimistic about the future ties between India and Pakistan, saying: "Ice has started melting, a positive step has been made. The possibility is that in the near future Amritsar and Ferozepur border are opened, paving way for unprecedented development of both the Punjabs with the opening of traditional Silk route."

Sidhu, who spent time in the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara on Thursday morning, said he had brought back soil from the fields of Kartarpur Sahib, a chadhar from the gurdwara and flour made from the wheat grown in the fields of Kartarpur for his wife.

He also presented a model of Golden Temple to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.