A day after Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh took strong exception to the recent statements of the two of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Navjot Sidhu’s advisors on sensitive national issues like Kashmir and Pakistan, opposition parties SAD, AAP, and BJP on Monday targeted the Congress leadership on the issue.
Senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and senior leader Rahul Gandhi should tell people of the country whether they agreed with the anti-India propaganda of Sidhu’s office. He demanded the registration of a case of treason against him and his team. Majithia said, “It’s shocking to see that on a day when India was celebrating its Independence Day, statements against the nation were being issued from the PPCC office.” He said that it was shocking that the PPCC president’s office was maintaining that Kashmir was a country of Kashmiris that India had annexed part of by force and Kashmiris are not part of India.
He said that it appeared that these kinds of statements from the PPCC office were emerging only because of the close association of the PPCC president with Pak Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. “It seems the PPCC office is implementing Gen Bajwa’s agenda with regards to India, particularly Kashmir”. He said that the PPCC office had said that India had violated the UN resolution and divided Kashmir that amounted to questioning the very existence and boundary of India.
The SAD leader said that on one hand India maintained that the territory of Kashmir under illegal occupation of Pakistan belonged to it but the PPCC office was claiming otherwise. He said that these statements were a direct attack on sacrifices made by Indian soldiers, particularly Punjabis. Majithia said that the PPCC president’s office also seemed to be working in conjunction with the Prime Minister of Pakistan. He said that immediately after Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan justified the actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the very next day the PPCC office justified the capture of Afghanistan by the Taliban.
Asking the CM that only lip service would not work, Majithia said if Capt Amarinder is not in agreement with the PPCC president’s office statements, then he should order registration of cases against PPCC president and his team. He said that if Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi also differed with Sidhu and his team, they should immediately remove him from his post without any delay.
The AAP Punjab senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema also said that Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi should make their stand clear on this issue. He asked, “Does the Gandhi family also accept the Indian occupation of Kashmir?” Cheema alleged that such unnecessary and irresponsible statements about Kashmir instead of innumerable important issues related to Punjab and its people were a deliberate conspiracy of the Congress and Sidhu. “Sidhu has a well thought out conspiracy. He wants to divert the attention of the people of Punjab from the election promises of the Congress as the people have started demanding an account of the written promises made by the Congress in 2017 from Sidhu after he became the president,” he added.
Meanwhile, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh said that Sidhu’s advisors were reciting the script that has come to them from Pakistan. Chugh said that Sidhu’s advisors are saying what Pakistan PM and Army chief have been telling India. “It is a painful reminder of the events during which Sidhu had hugged the Pakistan Army chief when Imran Khan became the Prime Minister of Pakistan,” he added. Chugh demanded Sonia Gandhi to explain the party’s stand on the issue. He said that Sidhu’s advisors seemed to be more loyal to Pakistan than to India.