{"id":95031,"date":"2019-11-10T16:37:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T23:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95031"},"modified":"2019-11-10T16:37:07","modified_gmt":"2019-11-10T23:37:07","slug":"kartarpur-a-love-junction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/10\/kartarpur-a-love-junction\/","title":{"rendered":"KARTARPUR-A LOVE JUNCTION"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Looking\nback to the history, during the 1947 partition of India, the region where the\nholy Dera Baba Nanak Sahib and Gurdwara Baba Guru Nanak situated was divided\nbetween India and Pakistan. The Radcliffe Line awarded the Shakargarh tehsil on\nthe right bank of the Ravi River, including Kartarpur, to Pakistan, and the\nGurdaspur tehsil on the left bank of Ravi to India. For many years after\npartition, Indian Sikhs had been using a bridge on the Ravi River to reach\nKartarpur. This bridge was eventually destroyed in the Indo-Pakistan war of\n1965 and this destruction added a lot to the troubles of the religious devotees\ndesirous of going to Kartarpur. Now opening of the Kartarpur Corridor has made\nthings very simple and convenient for them. It is no doubt an achievement of\nPakistan that the Sikh community all over the world is expressing its joy and\njubilance, thrill and excitement over getting an easy access to the shrine of Gurdwara\nDarbar Sahib near Narowal, in Punjab, Pakistan. Before opening of the Kartarpur\nCorridor, the Sikh pilgrims had to cover a long distance to reach this shrine\nbut now this distance has been reduced to just 4.7 Kilometers. Though\napparently the Indian authorities are expressing their happiness on opening of\nthis corridor but inwardly they are not comfortable with it. They think that\nthis is not a corridor linking the two shrines but a corridor providing\nPakistan an access to the hearts of the Indian Sikh Community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ninauguration ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor was attended by thousands of\npeople from Pakistan and India including Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, Former\nIndian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Indian Punjab’s Chief Minister Amarinder\nSingh, cricketer Navjot Sidhu and so many others. During the sacred ceremony,\nMr. Amarinder Singh the Chief Minister of the Indian Punjab would certainly be\nthinking of his recent interview with India Today in which he has said that he\nfeels Pakistan has a hidden agenda behind the opening of the Kartarpur\ncorridor. He alleged that the Pakistan Army and the ISI are behind the opening\nof the Kartarpur Corridor. He said, I look at it in two ways -As a Sikh, I am\nhappy it happened, this will be like a pilgrimage back to history for me. But\nat the same time I feel like opening of this corridor is an ISI operation. I\nsay this because the day that Imran Khan was sworn in as Pakistan PM, Navjot\nSingh Sidhu was invited to grace the occasion where General Bajwa told him that\n\u2018you will be happy to know that we are opening the corridor\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be\nit the freedom movement in Jammu and Kashmir or in Nagaland, Assam, Tripura or\nthe Khalistan movement and above all the Kartarpur Corridor Project, the Indian\nagencies and the politicians always try their best to frame the ISI in all such\nmovements. Surprisingly, the ISI always seems haunting the nerves of Indian\nrulers, politicians, and even of the nerves of the Indian intelligence\nagencies. Dragging the ISI into the internal matters of India and blaming it\nfor all that goes wrong in India is not a new tradition. Certainly this\ntradition will be followed now after the prejudiced and partially narrow-minded\ndecision of the Indian Supreme Court on Babri Mosque. A very harsh reaction\nfrom the Indian Muslims is expected at some later stage as the Muslims there\nare in a state of fear and horror at present. The statement of Asaduddin\nOwaisi, the president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen very clearly\nreflects the hidden anger and anxiety of the Indian Muslims over the decision.\nHe said talking to media, If the Babri Masjid wasn’t demolished that day, what\nwould the judgment have been today? \nThere has been discrimination against Muslims and no one can deny it. We\nare fighting for our legal rights.\u201d In short, sooner or later, the Muslims\nwould certainly protest over this injustice but unfortunately the Modi sarkar,\ninstead of pacifying the Muslims, would start blaming the ISI for all their\nprotest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nblame-story is not a new one; from the Mumbai Blasts to the Pulwama Attacks,\nthe same story has been repeated so many times. Now, Pakistan\u2019s efforts for\nmaterializing the Kartarpur Corridor have become a very strong proof of the\nfact that Pakistan is a peace loving country; it gives very much importance to\nthe basic rights of the minorities and it can play a very vital role in\nbringing the regional hostile communities and nations closer. This exemplary\nrole of Pakistan had already won a lot of appreciation with reference to its\npeace-efforts in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka too. Some mouth-pieces of the Modi\nsarkar are trying to convince the world that Pakistan\u2019s eagerness to open the\nKartarpur Corridor is in fact a tactic of instigating the Sikh community\nagainst the government of India. They say that through this corridor Pakistan\nwould try to bring the Khalistan leaders in close contact and this contact\nshall lead to the achievement of Khalistan, an independent land for the Sikh\ncommunity. Let us wait and see what happens next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER Looking back to the history, during the 1947 partition of India, the region where the holy Dera Baba Nanak Sahib and Gurdwara Baba Guru Nanak situated was divided between India and Pakistan. The Radcliffe Line awarded the Shakargarh tehsil on the right bank of the Ravi River, including Kartarpur, to Pakistan, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ali-sukhanver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}