India has rightly called off talks after Pak appoints Khalistani leaders on joint panel
It seems that Pakistan and good intentions can never really go hand-in-hand. Turns out India’s suspicions about its graciouness and haste over opening the Kartarpur corridor, linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur — the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev — to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district, are not entirely unfounded. For it now looks like another ruse by Pakistan to revive the Khalistani movement and foment trouble in Punjab, now that it has been squeezed on Jammu and Kashmir post-Balakot. It has now appointed several Khalistani separatists in a committee on the Kartarpur corridor much to India’s discomfort. So pending an explanation of India’s concerns, there won’t be any deliberation on it. This comes at a time when India, despite the cross-border tension after the Jaish attack on Pulwama and the counterstrikes on its bases in Balakot, had delinked a people-to-people contact issue from diplomatic hostilities.
No matter how hard India may try, the fact is that Pakistan’s initiative on the Kartarpur corridor is not entirely free of politics. It seized the first mover’s advantage in propaganda by declaring its intention to operationalise the old link soon after Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh blamed the ISI for the grenade attack on a Nirankari gathering near Amritsar. With that announcement, Pakistan got its own minority Sikhs on board, a favourable opinion from the extended community around the world, revived the hardline Khalistan sentiment and eventually tried to foment disturbance in Punjab. India had no choice but to get into the act immediately before it could assess if it was another attempt by Pakistan to woo the Sikh community. Pilgrimages between India and Pakistan are governed by the 1974 Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines, but Kartarpur being not on that list, needs a separate code of engagement, one where both are still jousting for a say. India has to be alert that the base camp on the Pakistani side doesn’t become a hotbed for Khalistani propaganda and meetings in the name of allowing faith congregations. Pakistan’s haste in pushing the corridor now after years of dilly-dallying does raise questions about its intentions. The first demand for a visa-free access was made by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999. In 2004, Dr Manmohan Singh suggested a corridor as Prime Minister. On both occasions, there was no positive response from Pakistan. However, the very day Imran Khan took oath as Prime Minister, the message for opening the corridor was conveyed by Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa to Punjab Minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, knowing full well the latter’s flamboyance and ability to shoot off his mouth, which he did, catching India completely off guard. The “deep state” had succeeded in championing a delicate cause for the Sikhs. And yet again, as General Bajwa stood in Kartarpur, shaking hands with a known Khalistani face in Pakistan, Gopal Singh Chawla, he added to our worries. Pakistan is trying to project itself as a champion of minority rights and religious freedoms and desperately trying to project India as the biggest obstacle in the pursuit of altruistic goals. But India cannot afford to let its guard down or allow a new domestic crisis to brew. Though Pakistan would like to use faith to forge another front in its proxy war.