Union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to tell what action he will take against Congress minister Navjot Sidhu for betraying the people of the country and misusing Sikh sentiments on the Kartarpur corridor issue to hide his traitorous conduct.
In statement here, Harsimrat Badal said “the cat is out of the bag”. It is now clear that there is no Pakistan proposal to open the Kartarpur corridor. The same has been officially announced by Union External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. Now it is clear that Sidhu deliberately lied to the people and claimed he had received an assurance about opening of the Kartarpur corridor from Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to ward off criticism for hugging the General. Now Rahul Gandhi should disclose whether Sidhu went to Pakistan for his friend Imran Khan’s swearing in ceremony with his blessings and whether he was also part of the conspiracy to play with the sentiments of the Sikh community. If not then Rahul should expel Sidhu from the Congress party immediately for betraying the people of the country and dis-respecting our martyrs”.
In a frontal attack on Navjot Sidhu, the union minister challenged him to show proof of clearance given by Pakistan government to open the Kartarpur corridor. “Also if Sidhu is such close friends with Imran Khan as claimed by him he should tell his friend to give a letter stating it was ready to open the Kartarpur corridor and we will take up this issue with our government to get it ratified. He should also ask his friend to stop the killings on the international border and stop exporting terror to India”.
Stating that Sidhu was resorting to deceitful acts to hide the cardinal sin committed by him by hugging the Pakistan army chief, Mrs Badal said the issue of opening of the Kartarpur corridor was nothing new. “An agreement to open the corridor was taken as part of a bilateral protocol with Pakistan but never followed by the latter. The Punjab government under S Parkash Singh Badal has passed a resolution to this effect in the Vidhan Sabha. A parliamentary delegation has also taken up this issue with the Pak government. The Shiromani Committee has been taking up this issue regularly and even now is in the process of visiting Pakistan along with the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) to pursue this demand”.
Mrs Badal also disclosed that Sidhu had even resorted to mischievous conduct yesterday by using senior Congress leader M S Gill to take time from the External Affairs minister and then tagging along with Gill to meet Ms Sushma Swaraj. “This is the reason Sushma ji snubbed Sidhu and asked him why he had misused the political clearance given to him to visit Pakistan to act in this irresponsible unpatriotic manner which had hurt the sentiments of people of the country. It is shameful that Sidhu even lied about the meeting with the External Affairs minister to the media by claiming the ministry would act on his request. The truth is that Ms Swaraj refused to entertain him at all”.
The union minister said all this proved that Sidhu had not only betrayed the Sikh community but also the entire nation by trying to hide his traitorous conduct with falsehoods about the Kartarpur corridor. Asking him to act more responsibly in the future, she said “politics is not a comedy circus. Moreover the unity and integrity of the country can never be compromised for petty political gains. You should now come clean and apologize to the Sikh community as well as the people of the country for misleading them on this highly sensitive issue linked with a holy place associated with the founder of Sikhism – Guru Nanak Dev ji”