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Pakistan eager to mend ties despite mixed signals from India

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Pakistan PM Imran Khan raises Kashmir dispute at Kartarpur Sahib ceremony, his foreign minister says ‘outstanding issue, isn’t it?’

Kartarpur Sahib, Pakistan: Several thousand Sikh pilgrims who thronged the holy Sikh shrine of Kartarpur Sahib gurudwara on the banks of the Ravi in Pakistan’s Punjab Wednesday showed a restrained euphoria. Nothing could dampen their emotion, not even External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s dismissal of a possible thaw in the larger India-Pakistan relationship as a result of the decision to build a corridor connecting Dera Baba Nanak with the shrine in Narowal.

“Terror and talks do not go together,” Swaraj said in New Delhi Wednesday, even as two high-profile ministers of the Narendra Modi government, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri, sat in the front row at the foundation stone-laying ceremony alongside Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, and applauded him for his initiative.

Badal described the proposed corridor that will straddle the international boundary between the two states of Punjab as a “peace corridor”.

“If the Berlin Wall can fall,” Badal said, reiterating Modi’s statement about unexpected change a few days ago, “then the nafrat (animosity) between India and Pakistan can dissolve and new beginnings are possible.”

Unclear policy?

The openly contradictory statements by senior members of the Modi government badly expose again the fissures in the PM’s Pakistan policy. This comes in the wake of a confirmation of foreign minister-level talks in September and their cancellation, all within 24 hours and for no real reason.

Luckily, for the visiting Indian Sikh pilgrims, Narowal is too far inside Pakistani Punjab for Swaraj’s news to have reached them Wednesday. For those thronging the gates of a gurudwara where the beloved Sikh guru spent the last 18 years of his life, the overwhelming emotion was one of deep gratitude.

Never mind that in the faraway Indian capital, Swaraj said, “There will be no talks with Pakistan and India will not attend the SAARC summit. Our stance is clear.”

Her motives for a spoilsport dismissal are unclear. Perhaps she was reminding the prime minister of his own oft-repeated statements that “terror and talks don’t go together”. Perhaps she was implicitly asking why he sent two ministers to Kartarpur Sahib and held the Dera Baba Nanak ceremony on 26 November, the tenth anniversary of the Mumbai attacks.

Meanwhile, Badal, visibly choking upon her own emotion, was envisioning the possibility of a new reconciliation between the two Punjab provinces. The occasion was powerful enough. And it had come after a long wait of 71 years.


Also read: Kartarpur corridor harbours hope, but must be aware of ground realities: Hardeep Singh Puri


‘Army and me on the same page’

As Badal, and before her, Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu spoke with considerable eloquence about the special need for healing in Punjab which had borne the brunt of a traumatic Partition, Khan picked up on the tone of catharsis which dominated the afternoon.

Underlining the new cosiness between his government and the Army in Naya Pakistan, Khan said, “Today let me say that I, as prime minister, my party, all of Pakistan’s political parties, and the Army are all on the same page.”

The admission startled no one, not only because it is well-known that Pakistan’s India policy is controlled by the Pakistani military establishment — Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and Sidhu had first talked about such a corridor three months ago — but that Bajwa had moved quickly to dust off the cobwebs on Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 1999 proposal to repair the ageing gurudwara.

Bajwa came to the ground-breaking ceremony, but left after a few minutes. Perhaps he didn’t want to take away from Khan’s show. But the fact that he showed up in his chopper, even for a few minutes, meant that he and the Pakistan Army are fully on board and prepared to back the corridor proposal with its considerable influence.

Perhaps that is the big difference between Nawaz Sharif’s bus diplomacy in 1999 with this new 2019 version.

‘Settle disputes, like Kashmir’

In 1999, Sharif had to practically battle the opening-up with India single-handedly — within a few months, the Kargil conflict broke out, masterminded by his own Army chief Pervez Musharraf.

This time around, Khan and Bajwa’s army are a cinch.

“We want to move forward. We want a civilised relationship with India. We want to settle all disputes, like Kashmir,” said Khan.

“If India takes one step to improve relations, we will take two,” Khan said, reiterating the proposal to India made in the first flush of victory in domestic polls.

The mention of the word ‘Kashmir’, though, was like a red rag to an enthusiastic bull.

A Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson back in New Delhi said, “It is deeply regrettable that the Pakistani PM chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long-pending demand of the Sikh community …by making an unwarranted reference to J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) which is an integral and inalienable part of India.”

Asked why Khan raised Kashmir on such an occasion, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a group of visiting Indian journalists, “He was simply pointing it out. It’s an outstanding issue, isn’t it?”


Also read: Kartarpur Corridor may become a harbinger of peace for India & Pakistan, say residents


‘Break the chains of past’

At Kartarpur Sahib, Khan seemed to be enjoying the role of the village elder. He first explained the importance of the gurudwara to his largely Muslim audience — it is as if you were denied a visit to the holy shrine in Medina when only a few kilometres away.

“We will never move forward until we break the chains of the past. Maazi sirf seekhne ke liye hai, rehne ke liye nahin hai (Past is to learn from, not to live),” he said.

But the past was all around the circa 1925 Kartarpur Sahib gurudwara Wednesday.

More than 3,800 Sikh pilgrims who had been given visas to visit several other shrines in Pakistan, thronged its site, chanting in unison, bowing their heads at the Nishan Sahib (the holy flagstaff outside every gurudwara), gazing with fervour at the writing in Gurmukhi and Urdu that spelt out the building’s history on an external wall.

Ironically, the beautiful antique building had been built by then Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala — except, today, his grandson and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh refused to attend the pathbreaking ceremony.

Nihangs in traditional blue tunics, an elderly bank manager from Jammu, a group of Sikhs from Kurukshetra, elderly women with walking sticks… all ordinary people with few financial resources, but firm in the belief that the pain and waiting of 71 years to physically see the holy gurudwara was worth it.


Also read: With Kartarpur, Punjab has forced Narendra Modi to make another U-turn on Pakistan


‘No friends, no relatives’

Back under the shamiana, Union minister Badal also seemed overcome with emotion.

Only a couple of months ago she had let fly at Sidhu, accusing him of selling out the national interest by confabulating with the Pakistan Army chief on the gurudwara corridor.

“What hasn’t happened for 70 years, the guru has ensured it happened today. Sometimes on a clear day, you could even hear the sounds of the evening kirtan floating across,” Badal said.

Taking a dig at the adulation with which Sidhu had been greeted in Pakistan over the previous 24 hours and earlier, Badal said, “Wazir-I-Azam, mera na koi mitter, na dost, na rishtedaar hai idhar (I have no relations nor friends here in Pakistan),” adding, “but today I heard the call of Baba Nanak and have come here.”

Then came the invocation to Modi, who only last week had visited her home on the occasion of Guru Parab, so as to boost her and husband Sukhbir Badal’s electoral chances in Punjab.

As for Sidhu, he was the star of the show this afternoon. Seated on the same sofa as Khan, who complimented him several times, Sidhu returned the favour heartily.

“When history is written, Imran Khan’s name will be up front. Hindustan jeevay, Pakistan jeevay… mera yaar dildaar Imran Khan jeevay (Long live India, long live Pakistan, and long live my friend Imran Khan),” he said.

This reporter is in Pakistan as a guest of the Pakistani government.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Unclear what substantive role EAM plays in the formulation of foreign policy. She had spoken with great warmth earlier of her meeting with PM Nawaz Sharif’s mother and a commitment she made to her to work for friendship between the two countries.

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