Divine hand seems to have guided opening of Kartarpur Corridor: Ex-envoy Ajay Bisaria

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, January 8

A divine hand seemed to be guiding both countries to do the right thing for the people regarding the Kartarpur Corridor, writes India’s former High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria in his book “Anger Management” on ties between New Delhi and Islamabad over the past seven decades.

Motives behind move

To security analysts, the Kartarpur initiative was also Pakistan’s strategic attempt to shift the centre of gravity of Sikhism from eastern Punjab to its west. Tourism promotion and goodwill were the ostensible reasons. “Why did Pakistan, some cynics asked, not promote Buddhist heritage with the same fervour? Because it had an interest in Khalistan, not Buddhistan,” writes Bisaria.

“The process went off surprisingly smoothly both on the diplomatic table and on the ground in Punjab. Miraculously, the project had survived the diplomatic crises of Pulwama, Balakot, and the August animosity over Article 370. All other people-to-people links had been snapped,” wrote Bisaria, who contributed to the initiative during his truncated stint as the Indian High Commissioner to Islamabad.

Surprisingly, the Pakistan army had started work on the corridor before it broached the proposal. The then Army chief had informed Congress leader Navjot Sidhu about it. When Pakistan made a formal proposal, India quickly agreed in principle as it wanted to move on with the corridor project with speed in time for the start of the celebrations of the 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak in November 2018.

In India, the political judgement was to factor in security concerns without being overwhelmed by them. “In my public remarks, I began calling Kartarpur a corridor of faith and a corridor for peace,” reminiscences Bisaria. Pakistan had announced that then PM Imran Khan would lay the foundation of the corridor. Speculation grew that Pakistan would want to invite PM Modi to the inauguration and that he could even accept.

But if the Indian PM arrived, Pakistani strategists feared, all political credit for the corridor might go to him, defeating several Pakistani objectives. Finally, Pakistan invited Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, and Punjab Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu. But India decided to field, instead of Sushma, two Sikh ministers in the NDA government, Hardeep Singh Puri and Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Foreign Minister Qureshi seemed to give away Pakistan’s thinking in a speech during the PTI government’s 100-day celebrations in November 2018 when he said Pakistan had thrown a “googly” at India and made an offer that India could not refuse. India, he implied, was being forced to send two of its ministers to the inaugural despite its reluctance to do so.

“Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh chose not to travel for the ceremony, voicing objections as a former soldier against Pakistan’s behaviour at the border. But his maverick party colleague Sidhu did arrive once again. I received ministers Hardeep Puri and Harsimrat at Wagah,” he writes.

Defying all expectations, the corridor project across the Ravi river went speedily ahead on both sides. “This was one of the highlights of my tenure in Pakistan. In other areas, the way forward was rockier,” recalled Bisaria.

India had stoutly opposed Pakistan’s attempts to allow only Sikh pilgrims from India, but insisted the corridor should be open to Indians of all faiths. Both countries eventually agreed to allow visa-free travel for Indian passport holders and OCI card holders seven days a week.

“As if steered by a divine hand, the process had chugged along in a landscape littered with trouble. As it happened, India was confident that the security risks of this gambit could be plugged and the corridor seen as a gift to the people of Punjab, along with a host of other measures, for a grand celebration of the 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak,” he wrote.

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