After weeks of bitterness, signs of thaw in ties between India and Pakistan have emerged over the issue of opening the Kartarpur Corridor. The Indian government has nominated a team led by a senior minister to attend the corridor opening.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, however, said she would be unable to attend the meeting. In a letter to her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who had invited her to attend the ground breaking ceremony on November 28, Swaraj said: “Due to my prior commitments, including election campaign scheduled in Telangana, I will not be able to travel to Kartarpur Sahib.”
Earlier, Qureshi in a tweet extended a formal invitation to the Modi government to be a part of the historic occasion mentioned: “On behalf of Pakistan, I have extended an invitation to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj @SushmaSwaraj ,Capt Amarinder Singh @capt_amarinder & Navjot Singh Sidhu @sherryontopp to attend the groundbreaking ceremony at #Kartarpura on 28 Nov, 2018. #PakistanKartarpuraSpirit.”
The Indian government, meanwhile, has instead nominated Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Badal and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri, incidentally both from the Sikh community, to represent India at the event for which Navjot Sidhu of the Congress has accepted the invitation.
Sidhu’s hugging of Pakistani Army chief Bajwa during Imran Khan’s oath-taking ceremony as PM in August in Islamabad this year had led to a huge row with the government accusing Sidhu of being a stooge and not an interlocutor on the matter.
“It is our hope that the Pakistan government will expedite the construction of the corridor in order to ensure that our citizens can pay their respects at the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara using the corridor as soon as possible,”added Swaraj in her letter on Saturday.
Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu will lay the foundation stone of the Dera Baba Nanak-Kartarpur Sahib road corridor at a function in Mann village of Gurdaspur district on November 26
Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh will be present
Guru Nanak Dev lived in Kartarpur for 18 years till 1539. Gurdwara Darbar Sahib is built where he breathed his last
