Friends Over Family? Congress Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu Says He Prefers Pakistan To South India

Former Indian Test Cricketer and Congress Leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday waded in to yet another controversy stating that he prefers Pakistan over South India citing ‘cultural similarities’.

The controversial cricketer, who is currently the minister of tourism and culture, in Captain Amarinder Singh led Congress government in Punjab, was speaking at a literary festival in Kasol on Saturday.

He remarked that, “If I go to Tamil Nadu, I don’t understand the language. Not that I don’t like the food, but I can’t take it for long. That culture is totally different. But if I go to Pakistan, they speak Punjabi and English and I can relate to them more”
“I can hardly understand a word, except for two-three like vanakkam. I am okay with the food there. I can have dishes like idli but then, I cannot have South Indian cuisine for long,” he added.

“When I travel to Pakistan, there is no difficulty. The language is the same and everything there is just amazing,” he remarked.

The former cricketer received widespread criticism for embracing Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa during his visit to Pakistan for attending the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan’s as the country’s Prime Minister.
Sidhu claimed that his hug to Bajwa was an “emotional gesture” after Bajwa informed him of the efforts to open the corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan to facilitate pilgrimage on the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.