Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu waded into a fresh controversy on Saturday after he urged the Indian government to open its borders with Pakistan for trade at a time India is battling continued threats to national security from the other side of the Line of Control.
“I request that if you want to change Punjab’s life, we should open the borders (for cross-border trade). Why should we go through Mundra Port, a total of 2,100 kms? Why not from here, where it’s only 21 kms (to Pakistan),” the cricketer-turned-politician told reporters in Gurdaspur.
Sidhu was speaking on the sidelines of his visit to Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan after the Corridor was reopened by the Indian government two days before Guru Nanak Jayanti.
Kartarpur Sahib is the final resting place of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism.
After visiting the shrine in Pakistan, Sidhu addressed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan his “elder brother”.
“With the efforts of PM Narendra Modi and Pakistan PM Imran Khan, this has been made possible,” Sidhu said.
It is to be noted here that Sidhu and Khan were contemporaries on the cricket field for their respective countries before both took the plunge into politics.
Responding to Sidhu’s comments, Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya slammed the Congress high command for favouring “Pakistan-loving Sidhu over veteran Amarinder Singh”
