Sidhu's Advisor Quits After Outrage Over Kashmir Comment

Days after his comments on Kashmir created uproar, Malvinder Singh Mali on Friday quit as adviser to Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.

"I humbly submit that I withdraw my consent given for tendering suggestions to Navjot Singh Sidhu,” Mali announced on social media.
He added:“Neither accepted any post, nor resigned from any post”. Mali said.

Amid a power tussle in Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had asked Sidhu on Sunday to "rein in" his advisers after two of them made "atrocious" comments recently on sensitive issues like Kashmir and Pakistan.

AICC general secretary Harish Rawat, who is in charge of Punjab affairs, had also said that the two advisers need to go.

Sidhu on August 11 had appointed Mali, a former government teacher and political analyst, and Pyare Lal Garg, a former registrar of Baba Farid University of Health and Sciences, as his advisers to seek their “wise counsel.”

In a recent social media post, Mali had waded into the issue of revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

He had reportedly said if Kashmir was a part of India, then what was the need to have Articles 370 and 35A. He had also said, “Kashmir is a country of Kashmiri people.”

Garg, another adviser of Sidhu, had reportedly questioned the chief minister's criticism of Pakistan.

The chief minister had warned against such "atrocious and ill-conceived comments that were potentially dangerous to the peace and stability of the state and the country". (With PTI inputs)