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Sidhu makes U-turn, says Rahul never asked him to go to Pak

| @indiablooms | Dec 01, 2018, at 10:45 am

Chandigarh, Dec 1 (IBNS): In a U-turn from his previous statement, Punjab minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has said his party chief Rahul Gandhi didn't ask him to go to Pakistan to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor.

Sidhu said it is Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan who had asked him to visit the neighbouring country.

In a tweet on Friday night, the cricketer-turned politician said: "Get your facts right before you distort them, Rahul Gandhi Ji never asked me to go to Pakistan. The whole world knows I went on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s personal invite."

Making his party uncomfortable, Sidhu on Friday said he went to Pakistan with the blessings of party "captain" Rahul Gandhi.

On being asked why he went to Pakistan even as Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh asked him not to do so, Sidhu had said, "My captain is Rahul Gandhi, he has sent me everywhere." 

Sidhu was present at the groundbreaking ceremony where Khan said the Indian politician could win elections even in Pakistan.

Even as Singh targeted Pakistan over the 'terrorist attacks' and had declined to visit the country, Sidhu played the goodwill ambassador when he arrived in the neighbouring nation to attend the Katarpur corridor ground-breaking ceremony in Nankana Sahib.

While the Punjab Congress appeared split over its relationship with Pakistan, especially after a recent terror attack in Amritsar, Sidhu reached the other side of the border saying he has brought with himself the message of "love and peace".

Sidhu's action also invited a jibe from Harsimrat Kaur Badal, one of the union ministers who had attended the Kartarpur ceremony. Badal said it seems Sidhu receives more love and respect in Pakistan than in India.

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