NEW DELHI: After attending the oath-taking ceremony of Imran Khan in Pakistan , cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday said that he came to the the country with the message of love. "I am taking back 100 times more love than what I brought here," the Punjab minister told reporters after the ceremony.

He hoped that Khan's victory will be good for India-Pakistan peace process. "It's our duty that we go back and ask our government to take a step ahead and I hope if we take one step forward, people here will take two steps forward," Sidhu was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Sidhu, who was seen embracing Pakistan army chief General Javed Qamar Bajwa before the start of the ceremony, said, " General Bajwa sahab hugged me and said 'we want peace'. So, let's swim in a blue ocean and shun the red ocean. It's my dream."

Saying that Bajwa also talked about opening the Kartarpur route, the Congress leader said, "General Bajwa came to me and said we were thinking of opening the Kartarpur route on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev."

Earlier, Sidhu used his usual poetic expression to praise Khan. "A new morning is here in Pakistan with a new government which can change the destiny of the country," he said.

Commenting on Sidhu's travel to Pakistan, Haryana health minister Anil Vij on Saturday lambasted the Punjab minister for attending Imran's oath ceremony.

Vij termed Sidhu's participation in the ceremony as an "act of disloyalty" towards India which "will not be endorsed by any patriotic citizen" of the country.

Speaking to mediapersons, the Haryana minister also lashed out at Sidhu for "ignoring the sentimental and grieved occasion of his country" which is observing mourning following the demise of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

(With agency inputs)

