Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi and discussed about the proposal for Islamabad to allow Sikh pilgrims from India to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan without any visa.
Sidhu, now a minister in Punjab's Congress government, attended the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan, another cricketer-turned-politician, in Islamabad last month.
At the ceremony, he hugged Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa, which created a political controversy in India, with the BJP and its ally Shiromani Akali Dal criticising Sidhu for embracing someone, who was responsiblke for killing Indian soldiers.
Sidhu defended his act saying that he embraced Bajwa when the latter promised to open the route for Indian pilgrims to visit the shrine.
Khan's information minister Fawad Chaudhry, too, recently said that Islamabad was planning to allow Sikh pilgrims from India to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan without visas.
“External Affairs Minister reprimands Navjot Sidhu for messing up Kartarpur Sahib corridor dialogue and misusing political clearance granted for private visit by hugging military chief responsible for killing our soldiers,” Harshimrat Kaur Badal, union minister and senior leader of Shiromani Akali Dal, posted on Twitter.
Neither Swaraj, nor Sidhu however made any comment in the social media or in the public about the issues they discussed.