Cricketer turned politician and new PM Imran Khan’s long-time buddy Navjot Singh Sidhu probably received more publicity than Khan himself at his oath-taking ceremony. While Khan fulfilled formalities and read out his oath, his friend Sidhu was busy carrying out a much more important task: making sure everyone knew that Sidhu had arrived, and was ready to mingle.
Sidhu started off by reciting a bit of heartfelt poetry for the cameras:
Navjot Singh Sidhu arrives in #ImranKhan’s #Oath taking ceremony
His poetry thou😍❤️👌#PrimeMinisterIK #PrimeMinisterImranKhan pic.twitter.com/jsvIp6ncFb— Aminaنیلاب (@AminaNilab) August 18, 2018
Needless to say, people aren’t highly accustomed to this sort of display. And that too from an Indian, no less. While the support is certainly admirable, and any enemy of Imran Khan might even be moved to envy – isn’t it almost comical how Sidhu chose to loiter around reciting poetry while his friend sweated it out, perhaps even suffering from some serious pre-ceremony jitters? Naturally, people had a lot to say in the wake of this poetry recitation.
We had our fair share of skeptics:
However, Sidhu did not stop there. He then went on to embrace Pakistan’s Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa during the ceremony in front of scores of cameras – willingly volunteering himself for verbal thrashings from many Indians. When questioned, Sidhu reportedly justified it in the following way:
“When someone takes the name of Baba Nanak, then he has offered you everything… I felt too much of love and affection from Pakistan’s side.”
It is clear from Sidhu’s facial expressions in the picture above that he was perhaps in an overwhelmingly happy state when he decided to go for a hug. However, he seems to be paying dearly for this bout of romantic spontaneity. The hug, it seems, will go down in history. It is already being fiercely debated over across many channels.
However, such speculation may be a waste. What’s done is done, and was perhaps impossible to be influenced by any third party. Sidhu does not seem like a man who would be easily deterred. The question is not of pre-meditation or any other mundanities – taking a page out of Sidhu’s book, one might even go as far as to say it is simply a matter of the heart.
