Punjab minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has courted yet another controversy with his recent act of gifting a partridge that he brought from Pakistan to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Sidhu, who was on a visit to Pakistan, returned with a stuffed partridge for the chief minister who was not too happy with the former’s trip. In his first meeting with the CM, Sidhu presented him the stuffed partridge as a gift, sparking criticism from a wildlife activist in Ludhiana, Sandeep Jain.
Jain, who is a volunteer with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau with the government of India, said that the black partridge brought by Sidhu from Pakistan is a violation of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. He also said that he has registered a complaint against the same with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, New Delhi, asking them to probe into the matter.
Jain requested WCCB to investigate how the protected animal was allowed to cross the Indo-Pak border and how Sidhu kept the partridge with him for days without informing the Punjab chief wildlife warden.
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During his visit to the neighbouring country on the occasion of groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor, Sidhu was gifted the stuffed black partridge by a Pakistan-based journalist, reported Hindustan Times. Sidhu reportedly visited Pakistan in spite of Punjab CM Amarinder Singh asking him to rethink on his decision to visit.
