Archives for August 2018

Courtesy: New indian Express

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s official Twitter account tweeted twice on Tuesday afternoon to once again invite India to dialogue and pursue peace, terming it the “best way to alleviate poverty and uplift the people of the subcontinent”, according to a Dawn report.

The tweets, which included a note of gratitude to longtime friend Navjot Singh Sidhu for attending PM Khan’s inauguration on a special invitation, reiterated the new prime minister’s belief that “without peace our people cannot progress.
” Addressing sections of the Indian media, politicians and civil society who have been criticising Sidhu for visiting Pakistan, PM Khan said: “Those in India who targeted him [Sidhu] are doing a great disservice to peace in the subcontinent.

“He was an ambassador of peace and was given amazing love and affection by people of Pakistan,” the prime minister wrote.

“To move forward, Pakistan and India must dialogue and resolve their conflicts, including Kashmir,” the premier was quoted as saying.

“The best way to alleviate poverty and uplift the people of the subcontinent is to resolve our differences through dialogue and start trading.

Slamming those who criticised him for hugging the Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Punjab Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday said that no one had raised questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unscheduled visit to Pakistan.

Defending his visit, he said: “My visit was not about politics but on a warm invite from an old friend. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had travelled on the bus to Lahore and Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled trip to Lahore in 2015, on his way back from an official visit to Afghanistan.”

During that surprise stopover, Modi had hugged then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he said.

“No one is questioning Prime Minister Modi,” he added.

Sidhu said his seating at the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan as Pakistan’s Prime Minister in Islamabad on August 18 was changed at the last minute and he did not know who sat next to him.

He was responding to the criticism for sitting next to Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir President Masood Khan at the ceremony.

Without mincing words, he said his visit to Pakistan was a tribute to Vajpayee, who wanted peace between the two countries.

Sidhu said he received a lot of love and affection in Pakistan and was disappointed by some of the reactions in India. He said he had received the invitation for the ceremony 10 times.

Sidhu said he went to Pakistan at the invitation and repeated reminders from Khan.

“Even our government gave permission to me to visit Pakistan. Two days after Pakistan gave him the visa, our External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called me and said that I had been given permission (to go),” Sidhu said.

Two days earlier Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said Sidhu’s hug with Bajwa was “not a nice gesture and was completely avoidable”.

Sidhu should have avoided indulging in such a gesture when Indian soldiers are getting killed everyday on the borders, the Chief Minister told reporters here.

At this Sidhu replied: “I was criticised by the Captain (Amarinder Singh), by top Congress leaders. It is not necessary that if the Captain has spoken against me, I should too.”

“Many people from Congress have spoken on this, including Captain Sahab. It’s a democracy and everyone has the right to have an opinion,” Sidhu said.

Karnataka Minister H D Revanna sparked a controversy after a video purportedly showing him flinging biscuit packets at flood victims in a relief camp in Hassan district went viral on Monday.

Revanna, PWD Minister and brother of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, was seen picking biscuit packets and hurling them at the people sheltered in the relief camp. Revanna was accompanied by JD (S) MLA AT Ramaswamy who represents Arkalgudu taluk.

As the video clip went viral in the social media besides being aired by TV channels, netizens and BJP leaders termed Revanna’s action as ‘insensitive’.

Senior BJP leader S Suresh Kumar slammed Revanna for the act. “Dear Public Works Minister, throwing biscuits (at the flood victims) is not a public work… Is it the bloated ego, uncivilised behaviour… behind throwing biscuits?” he asked in a Facebook post.

Slamming those who criticized him for hugging the Pakistan Army chief, Punjab cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday said that Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa met him barely for a minute before the swearing-in of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“I did not meet him later,” he told reporters.

Defending his action, Sidhu also said that his seating at the swearing-in in Islamabad on August 18 was changed at the last minute and he did not know who sat next to him.

Without mincing words, he said his visit to Pakistan was a tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who wanted peace between the two countries.

Sidhu said he received a lot of love and affection in Pakistan and was disappointed by some of the reactions in India.

He said he went to Pakistan at the invitation and repeated reminders from Imran Khan.

“Even our government gave permission to me to visit Pakistan. Two days after Pakistan gave him the visa, our External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called me and said that I had been given permission (to go),” Sidhu said.

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday again refused to attend the Tuesday meeting of a committee to select the Lokpal, saying he wouldn’t do so until he gets the status of a full-fledged member instead of a ‘Special Invitee’.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha said that to exclude the voice of the opposition in a parliamentary democracy would be to exclude and subjugate Parliament.

“… with reference to an office memorandum dated July 6 of the Department of Personnel and Training, inviting me to attend a meeting of the Selection Committee under the Lokpal Act on August 21, I would like to draw your attention to my three letters earlier this year in response to previous invitations to attend the committee meetings on March 1, April 10 and July 19 as a Special Invitee…

“Despite my earlier letters, the government continues to invite me as a Special Invitee, knowing very well what the outcome will be. Perhaps, the government intends this outcome to create another strawman to attack by suggesting that the opposition is not cooperating in implementing the Lokpal Act… there is no provision for a Special Invitee under the Lokpal Act.

“It is deeply embarrassing to Parliament that even after its Select Committee approved amendment to the Lokpal Act to enable leader of the single-largest (opposition) party to be a member of the Selection Committee, the government refuses to bring this amendment before the house.”

The senior Congress leader said that he believed that the process of appointing the Lokpal under such circumstances is “vitiated”.

“…instead of genuinely involving the opposition, the invitation as a Special Invitee without the right of participation, recording of opinion or voting, is being sent out to the opposition.

“Under these circumsatances… I will not be able to attend the committee meeting until the leader of the single-largest opposition (party in the Lok Sabha) is conferred the status of a full-fledged member of the Selection Committee, as envisoned in the Lokpal Act, 2013.”