Lahore: The opening of the historic Kartarpur corridor was the brainchild of Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and it will hurt India for ever, a top pakistani minister claimed on Saturday, contradicted his government’s assertion that the idea behind the initiative was of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
On November 9, Prime Minister Khan inaugurated the Kartarpur corridor to facilitate the visa-free entry of Indian Sikh pilgrims to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev.
While inaugurating the corridor, Khan had told a gathering of over 12,000 devotees, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh and cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu: “I had no idea of the importance this place holds. I found out a year ago. I am happy we could do this for you”.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has claimed that the Kartarpur corridor was the initiative of Prime Minister Khan.
However, Pakistan’s Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, a known motormouth considered to be a close aide of Prime Minister Khan, contradicted the government’s claim on Saturday when he told reporters here that the opening of the corridor was the brainchild of Army chief General Bajwa and asserted that it will hurt India for ever.
“India will remember for ever the kind of wound inflicted on it by Gen Bajwa by opening Kartarpur corridor,” he said.
“Gen Bajwa strongly hit India by opening the corridor. Through this project, Pakistan has created a new environment of peace and won itself love of the Sikh community, ” he said.
Rashid claimed that the Indian media “played up” the issue of General Bajwa’s extension.
“The Imran Khan government has three more years and Bajwa has got three years in extension and not six months. So our government will complete its tenure,” he said, indirectly referring that General Bajwa is here to back prime minister Khan’s government.
General Bajwa did not attend the Kartarpur Corridor’s opening ceremony apparently to avoid any controversy.
In the ground breaking ceremony on November 28 last year, the hug of Congress leader Sidhu with General Bajwa had sparked a controversy.
The inauguration of the corridor came in the midst of frayed ties between India and Pakistan following New Delhi’s August 5 decision to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcate the State into two Union Territories.
Notwithstanding a chill in the bilateral ties over Kashmir, India and Pakistan after tough negotiations signed an agreement in October, paving the way for the inauguration of the Kartarpur corridor on November 9.
The agreement will allow 5,000 Indian pilgrims daily to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib where Guru Nanak spent last 18 years of his life.
In February 1999, the Kartarpur corridor was proposed by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he took a bus ride to Lahore during a peace initiative with Pakistan. It links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district.
Also read: Pakistan’s Kartarpur peace initiative doesn’t come from a position of weakness
शुक्र है नेहरू ने सिर्फ नाम रखा वरना उनके शौक बहुत थे———? वर्तमान नेतृत्वकर्ता फिलहाल ऐसे प्रतीत नहीं होते? जय हिन्द वन्देमातरम
In all fairness to Imran Khan, he offered more than 300 places of worship including several temples to the various minorities in Pakistan. There are some that may be of minor importance, but there are others that are of historical and religious importance, and not just to the SIkh community alone. The Jain Parasvanatha temple at Ghori in Nangarparkar is likely the oldest existing Jain temple in the world, and there are several other Jain temples in other parts of Pakistan in various states of disrepair and disuse, with no Jain left in the country. Hindu temples in several other parts of Pakistan including the historical Hinglaj Mata Mandir were opened by previous Pakistani administrations to Hindu worshipers, though their location and distance from India means that they are difficult to open corridors to unlike Kartapur. There are also Buddhist temple and vihara ruins in all of Pakistan’s provinces, as well as a tiny community of Buddhists numbering a few hundred.
With the charged political and military situation between the two countries, there is no saying what might happen in the future. Hostilities could cause the recently reopened Kartarpur corridor to be closed as quickly as it was opened. In the meantime, Sheikh Rashid’s logorrhea and daydreams of reigniting the Khalistan uprising can safely be laughed at. There are political pierrots on both sides of the border, and he is just the latest to show the world how utterly silly he is. A list of crackpot statements made by marginal politicians in both Pakistan and India would be encyclopedic – perhaps, it needs to be compiled for that reason. The grim business of politics needs the relief of humor from crackpot political statements.
“Pakistan’s Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, a known motormouth”, I enjoyed the author’s description of Sheikh Rashid, a motormouth. The minster should not be taken seriously. The project was considered and advocated by many, but it was the PM Imran Khan govt which dared to open the corridor despite People of Kashmir under curfew. There is no denying the facts that Pakistan wants to create its soft image worldwide, particularly in India for many reasons, including earning goodwill for the people of Kashmir and Indian Muslims. It is also true that the Kartarpur corridor will change the perception of Pakistan in India and no political party like BJP will wind election by merely bashing Pakistan.
Lets take a minute to break down this great ‘humanitarian’ claim by Pakistan.
Since 1947 Indian Sikhs and others who revere Guru Nanakji, have been requesting this corridor of just 4km, but have had to be content with visual darshan from the Indian border. The Indian govt has put this request for a long time but has always been blocked by Pakistan. So shouldnt the talk be about the LACK of Paki humanity for 72 yrs??