Gurbani row: SAD seeks explanation from Sidhu

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today sought an explanation from former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu over the Gurbani row in Ludhiana last month.
SAD General Secretary Maheshinder Singh Grewal said that the attack on Sidhu's convoy in Jammu was a fallout of the incident in the absence of an apology from him.
"Members of the Sikh community in Jammu have repeatedly protested against Sidhu and demanded that he should seek forgiveness for distorting Gurbani. Instead of replying to this issue, Sidhu is politicising a strictly religious issue," Grewal said in a statement here.
Sidhu had landed in a controversy at a religious function in Ludhiana nearly a month ago where he was accused of wrongly attributing the words of Guru Arjan Dev to Arjun of Mahabharata in his speech.

"However, the manner in which Sidhu is behaving despite being clearly in the wrong for distorting the religious hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib points to a wider conspiracy. If this is so Sidhu is playing with fire as peace has been won in Punjab after a long struggle," Grewal said.
Advising Sidhu not to take the path of confrontation with his own religion, the SAD asked him to atone for his mistakes.
Grewal said Sidhu had been behaving like a maverick since the last few months, and that he boycotted his own party when its senior leadership did not give him the party ticket from Amritsar.

"Sidhu refused to campaign for Jaitely whom he had earlier described as his political guru. He even gave a green signal to his relatives to help Jaitely's opponent - Capt Amarinder Singh out of sheer frustration," Grewal alleged.