Kartarpur Corridor

Kr Swarn Kishore Singh
In February 1999, When Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee made a bus trip to Lahore, as an initiative of peace and to encourage the intermingling of the people across the border without fulfilling much of official formalities, he suggested to his Pakistani counterpart a corridor which is now popularly known as Kartarpur corridor. Subsequently in year 2000, even Pakistan too had agreed to allow Sikh pilgrims from India to visit the shrine without visa or passport after constructing a bridge from the border to the shrine. But somehow the commitment did not fructify into some concrete actions as the powers were vested in person who had achieved it via a military coup. Hence no credibility and follow ups in this matter.
Actually Kartarpur isn’t just another gurudwara, this gurudwara holds some emi-nence since Baba Guru Nanak had lived his last 18 years at this place. It was built in 16th century on the site where Baba Nanak had passed away. There is another interesting thing about this gurudwara i.e. although this gurudwara is in Pakis-tani territory but is very much visible from Indian side of border. Indian Sikhs gather in large number on the border for darshans of the gurudwara.
Now comes the curious case of unilateral opening of Kartarpur corridor; Pakistan out of nowhere after the swearing-in of an army installed puppet Prime Minister and a twitter attack on Indian Prime minister by Imran Khan finds a lost love in Indian Sikhs and unilaterally decides to open the Karatarpur corridor. And who they find as a useful ally in India, a Sikh having a formidable following and a minister in Congress Government in Punjab. And what follows the opening of the Kartarpur corridor is the eulogising of Pakistan and the nincompoop Sidhu falls in the trap of these grand enticing offers which were having some implicit and oblique motives. Sidhu’s case can be summed up in a Urdu couplet which is:
Humne daur-e-zamana dekha hai, hum waqt pe nazrein rakhte hain;
Kuchh majbooran kuchh maslatan, katil ko massiha kehte hain.
The manner in which Sidhu is behaving reminds of Jagjit Singh Chohan who was given a red carpet welcome by Pakistani leaders post Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. Just like Sidhu has been joked by Imran Khan to be Prime Minister of India, Jagjit Singh Chohan was invited by Pakistani army dictator Yahya Khan and revered as the leader of Sikhs. Jagjit Singh Chohan had managed things to the extent of having influence in Pakistani diplomatic mission in Pakistani to make entry of Sikhs easy in Pakistan and encourage the frequency of travelling to Pakistan for pilgrimage and thereby indoctrinating the propaganda of separate Khalistan.
Likewise Jagjit Singh Chohan, Navjot Singh Sidhu too has been proclaimed as a leader of Sikhs but sadly both had their own incapabilities or infatuation to flattery which restricted their vision to read between the lines. Sidhu too isn’t equipped enough with diplomacy and political maturity to unveil the ill designs of Pakistan, instead he is enjoying the hospitality of Pakistan and eulogising the Pakistani Punjabi culture. And Pakistan is banking on an emotional rhetoric to bridge the deep gorge of history of negativity and aggression from their side; that too when these exchange of goodies have their origins in some very catastrophic designs. The decision to open up Kartarpur corridor has much more to it than to improve the relations. The situation can be well analysed when we have a person installed by an adversary and aggressive army to deal with. Even worse is the fact that Imran Khan, is showing strange patronising behaviour towards Prime Minister Modi.
Look at the chain of events, Pakistan invites Sidhu, a Sikh politician who had re-cently revived his political affinities and affiliations and talks much about Punjabi culture and derives pride out of it; also a vocal critique of Prime Minister Modi and the party which holds power in Union government. Then Pakistani Army Chief General breaks a news before Sidhu that he is considering opening of Kartarpur corridor on 550th birth anniversary and making serious efforts in this direction. Now the questions which pop out of this issue are; Is opening of Kartarpur corridor, a diplomatic masterstroke? Is Kartarpur corridor a covert operation of inducing terrorism in Punjabi by reawakening the Khalistani sentiments by propagating the propaganda that India is least worried about religious sentiments of Sikhs? If this is a diplomatic act then how come General Bajwa breaks the news? Even if General Bajwa breaks the news, why Sidhu is chosen to as an ear on Indian part? How come an Army Chief is worried about a diplomatic stances of a country that too which involves a minority in other one? How come an Army Chief and a minister in a state for museums can exchange diplomacies for their respective countries? If such a thing happens, then believe me, there is much more to it, than what just appears. The choice of Sidhu is also noteworthy and then Pakistani Prime Minister talks about Punjabs on both side; earning profits by opening borders; this also asks for some serious thought. I do not know how things work in Pakistan but in India, states do not decide their respective foreign policies. This attempt of Pakistan shows that they are making some experiments in Punjab with Sidhu as their proverbial Vibhishan. What Sidhu can officially affect is payment of some electricity bills of the numerous museums such as Partition Museum in Amritsar and not the foreign policy, so better not to divulge in it; it is beyond his capability and integrity.
Announcement of Kartarpur corridor is no doubt a matter of joy for our Sikh brothers but unilateral gesture of goodwill from Pakistan surely asks for some-thing to feel worried about. This move from Pakistan can certainly be taken as a trap set up by Pakistan to force an engagement in dialogue with Indian govern-ment, which Indian government is lately ignoring to indulge in, keeping in view the recent violence on the border from Pakistani side. A corridor to compensate a long history of being at loggerheads. Is it believable?
Delhi-Lahore bus of Atal ji in 1999, when India was too generous with Pakistan; it took Pakistan only three months to kill the ensuing bonhomie by undertaking military intrusion into Kargil in Jammu & Kashmir. No doubt when it comes to our Pakistan policy we are not having a clear framed policy or diplomatic pres-sures, although some of its reasons can be attributed to the fact that more oftenly there is no one in Pakistan, who can be considered as final authority to indulge with. The flaws in our policy is something Pakistan always takes benefit from. Few months ago when India had rejected Pakistani proposal to open Kartarpur corridor on the ground that terror and talk cannot go together; then they found an oblique route to appease Sikhs in India in shape of Sidhu and no surprises when Sidhu was given such a welcome and even Imran Khan touted him as future Prime Minister of India.
We should better not forget that our neighbour is having another history of fan-ning some rhetoric in India by supporting and appeasing the hardliner pro-Khalistani outfits. And this corridor could, I fear, lead to some communal dis-harmony in Punjab which will consequently lead to revival of terrorism in Punjab via Khalistani sentiments. And when a grenade attack in Nirankari satsang Bha-wan in Amritsar took place, the fear of revival of terrorism seems finding reality. This attack should be a reason to understand the cause of continued threat that the state of Punjab lives with and why we need to be wary of Pakistani support to Sikh separatistism. This attack and subsequent opening of Kartarpur corridor should compel us to look back at the various aspects of Punjab’s social cataclysm and political catastrophe of union government in the shape of opening of Kartar-pur corridor. These factors can become very fertile breeding grounds for flourish-ing of seeds of terror in Punjab. Now when India has cornered Pakistan on inter-national arena, we must never forget that Pakistan will try to demean India as well, hence Pakistan can strategise to weaken India via different modes i.e. trig-gering internal rebellions, terror of drugs. As this convergence has less to the sentiments of Sikhs than spreading disarray among rest of India. Therefore beware Pakistan!
(The author is an advocate & political and legal analyst)
(The views of the author are personal)
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