In Lahore, Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu says those like Imran Khan know what it is to make history. Pakistani minister says imperative to talk.
Lahore: Lahore’s 12th century fort was beautifully lit up and bedecked with flowers Tuesday evening as Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu led the gathering in an invocation of heartfelt gratitude for Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan for helping open up the Kartarpur Sahib gurudwara, one of the holiest shrines of the Sikh community that has so far remained out of bounds.
“This is a corridor of infinite possibility,” Sidhu said, referring to a passage that will soon be built across the International Border that connects Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab to Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistani Punjab.
“The passage of time is unrelenting, but there are those like Imran Khan who know what it is to make history. I have come to say thank you to Pakistan, because what hasn’t happened in 71 years has happened in three months,” the Congress minister from Punjab added.
Two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered “surgical strikes” in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan retaliated by not cutting the tall sarkanda, or elephant grass, in Narowal district, thereby hiding from view Kartarpur Sahib, India’ neighbour is pulling out the stops and laying out the red carpet.
On Wednesday, Khan will lead the ground-breaking ceremonies for the corridor. This is the biggest event-cum-achievement of his 100-day-old government so far.
All foreign ambassadors accredited to Pakistan have been invited. Two ministers from India, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Hardeep Singh Puri and Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, will attend, as will several Indian journalists who have unusually been given visas to cover the event.
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Bridge the divide
The corridor, or ‘langah’ in Punjabi, is possibly the most interesting initiative to have come out of the Imran Khan government. It has the clear potential to bridge the divide between the two Punjabs, notwithstanding chief minister Amarinder Singh’s refusal to attend the ceremonies. His refusal means that Sidhu has been allowed to grandstand in Pakistan and raise his profile.
But the main message to emerge from the Lahore fort came from Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry, a close aide of Khan, who took over, lock, stock and barrel, the message that the late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee loved to iterate: “You may love or hate your neighbours, but you cannot change them”.
With its Kartarpur Sahib proposal, Pakistan has run away with the idea that a country beset with so many issues — from health and literacy to electoral democracy — can still muster up the courage to think out of the box.
The Islamic Republic is being seen to be taking care of its minorities. In contrast, democratic India is being seen to target its own Muslim communities, conflating them with “enemy Pakistan”.
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‘Baat cheet’
Quoting the poet Jalali, Chaudhry said, “If there is no guftagoo, no baat-cheet, no aana-jaana, then relationships tend to rust. We have allowed the rust to seep in since 1971, but now we will try and change history.”
“It is imperative that India and Pakistan talk to each other,” he said.
There are only three options that India and Pakistan have, Chaudhry pointed out. “First, is to go to war, and we have already done that three times. Second, is to prolong our issues. Or we can talk to each other.”
“Kuch aap lein, kuch hamein dein, kuch ham dete hain (You take a bit, we take a bit, we give a bit),” he said.
Whether terrorism or Siachen or Kashmir, both governments must realise that there is no problem in the world that cannot be resolved, Chaudhry added.
Indian officials, however, pointed out that there remained concerns about the Sikh pilgrims being infiltrated by Khalistani activists, pointing to the terror attack in Punjab last week.
As the story moves to Kartarpur Sahib gurudwara in Narowal district, a jatha of 6,000 Sikh pilgrims, of which more than half are from India, will travel to the Sikh shrine to pray at the site where Guru Nanak lived for nearly 18 years and breathed his last.
This reporter is in Pakistan as a guest of the Pakistani government.
Mothballing SAARC is another self goal.