Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday that Navjot Singh Sidhu’s gesture of hugging Pakistan’s army chief impacted soldiers back home and asserted that the Punjab minister could have “avoided it”.

Cricketer-turned politician Sidhu had courted controversy by hugging Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa during his visit to Pakistan for the swearing-in of Imran Khan as Prime Minister.

He had claimed that he did so as Bajwa told him that the Pakistan government was working for opening of the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims from Indian state of Punjab.