Indian actor and presenter Archana Puran Singh has replaced Navjot Singh Sidhu in Sony TV’s The Kapil Sharma Show after the latter was sacked for his comments on the Pulwama attack. Archana has been a common sight as a judge on comedy reality shows like Sony’s own The Comedy Circus. Sony TV’s official Twitter handle posted a short clip from the show’s Sunday episode. The tweet read, “We welcome Archana Puran Singh on #TheKapilSharmaShow, next Sunday! @apshaha @KapilSharmaK9 @kikusharda @Krushna_KAS @bharti_lalli @sumona24 @RochelleMRao @trulyedward @haanjichandan @Banijayasia.” Sidhu, while speaking about the Pulwama attack in a media interaction, had said that nations cannot be held responsible “for the dastardly acts of terrorists” and that terrorists have no religion. He had added, “There are good, the bad and the ugly. Every institution has them. Every nation has them. The ugly need to be punished. But individuals cannot be blamed for the dastardly act.” The comments had inspired widespread condemnation and Sony had been pressured to give him the boot from the show by social media users. Sidhu later claimed that his comments were “distorted” and while the country comes for him first, he stands by his statement that terrorism has no dharam, mazhab, zaat aur desh (religion, caste or country). “Mere liye hamesha hi desh pehle tha (For me the country had always been first)… but I stand by what I said yesterday (Friday) and I cannot blame an entire nation for an act done by a few cowards..,” he said. Published in Daily Times, February 18th 2019.