CHANDIGARH (The Thursday Times) — Indian Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has said he wants to attend the International Punjabi Conference in Lahore next month, but doubts that India’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led government will let him make the trip.
Speaking in the Indian Punjab assembly on Friday, Mann said he had spoken to the Pakistani Punjabi poet Baba Najmi and had been invited by the conference’s organisers. The fourth International Punjabi Conference, also called the World Punjabi Conference, is scheduled to be held in Lahore from November 27 to 29.
“Our roots are one, our problems are also similar,” Mann said, adding that people on both sides of the border share a culture and should be able to meet.
“How will they let me go to Pakistan?”
Mann said he did not expect New Delhi to allow the visit. “They do not even let me go to France or Japan. How will they let me go to Pakistan?” he said.
Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan responded: “If you get permission, take us along as well.” Several other members endorsed the speaker’s remark.
A call to reopen Kartarpur
Mann also called for the Kartarpur corridor to be reopened. The visa-free route links Indian Punjab to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Narowal, where Guru Nanak spent his final years, and is one of the holiest sites for Sikhs. India closed its side of the corridor last year.
Social media users in both countries welcomed Mann’s wish despite the chill in relations, the BBC reported. Ties between Pakistan and India have stayed strained since the four-day conflict in May last year, with trade and diplomatic contact sharply limited.∎
