New Delhi:
Congress leader and Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who sparked off a huge row with his Islamabad trip in August, yet again raked up a political storm with his weaponry of words on Saturday. In a veiled attack at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the cricketer-turned-politician said the prime minister is jealous of him as he was not invited to Pakistan PM Imran Khan's oath-taking ceremony in August. Sidhu's barb came days after Delhi BJP unit president Manoj Tiwari asked the Congress to clarify its stand on the contentious remarks recently made by party leaders Raj Babbar and Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Sidhu asked, "Is the PM jealous that he went to Pakistan uninvited for Nawaz Sharif’s birthday? He added, "I will not prove my patriotism to people whose name came up in Godhra riots case."
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Earlier in August, Sidhu's Islamabad trip to take part in Imran Khan's oath-taking ceremony evoked a wide condemnation from across the party lines, with the BJP accusing him of acting like a "Pakistani agent". Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal also slammed Sidhu for lying to people over the Kartarpur gurdwara corridor.
In October, Sidhu stoked yet another controversy when he said that he relates to Pakistan more than South India. Speaking at a literature festival in Kasauli, Sidhu also said he had a problem in understanding the language in South India.
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Sidhu was earlier with the BJP after joining the party in 2004 and even contested the general election from Amritsar. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2016 from Punjab but resigned from the position and left the party to join the Congress in 2017.
