Kartar Corridor border between the neighbouring nations of India and Pakistan, connecting the Sikh shrines of Dera Baba Nanak Sahib (located in Punjab, India) and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur (in Punjab, Pakistan). Pakistan recently allowed religious devotees from India to visit the Gurdwara in Kartarpur, 4.7 kilometres (2.9 miles) from the Pakistan-India border, without a visa. The Kartarpur Corridor was first proposed in early 1999 by then prime ministers of Pakistan and India, Nawaz Sharif and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, respectively, as part of the Delhi–Lahore Bus diplomacy. On 26 November 2018, the foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor was laid down on the Indian side. Two days later the foundation stone for the corridor was laid down on the Pakistani side. On March 14, Pakistan and India’s delegations met on the Indian side of the Attari-Wagah border to finalize the modalities for the Kartarpur corridor’s opening. The development comes a few weeks after the two countries were on the verge of an all-out war. Modi’s only interest in agreeing to any such meeting was domestic political needs. For the Sikh population in India, the Kartarpur corridor initiative has an important ideological and political significance. For Pakistan, the meeting with an Indian delegation concerning the full implementation of the Kartarpur corridor initiative had an altogether different meaning. But the sudden revival of the proposal by the Pakistani Army Chief, as conveyed to Navjot Singh Sidhu, cabinet minister in the Indian state of Punjab, in August 2018, and the speed of developments thereafter, also lend to the surprise. This credit to open the corridor goes to PM Khan and Gen Bhajwa. While the Kartarpur success is definitely a confidence-building measure between India and Pakistan in terms of religious tourism and people-to-people contact, it is also a success of Diplomacy.
The decision to open the Kartarpur Corridor last has been a surprisingly positive move by India and Pakistan, surprising because the decision comes during a broken state of bilateral relations, where no official dialogue has taken place since 2012 and diplomacy has repeatedly failed. In keeping with the Indian government’s firm stance that terror and talks with Pakistan will not go together, India turned down several overtures this year from Pakistan for bilateral talks. For Indian Sikh community, particularly from the state of Punjab, who has made several appeals since 1947 to access their holy shrine, it also marks a political success for the governments of the two Punjabs. Since 1999, the political leaders of India’s Punjab have played a crucial role in building Punjab-Punjab ties. Supported by successive regimes in New Delhi, the Indian state of Punjab has been able to build and promote cultural, religious, economic, or business relations with Pakistan’s Punjab province. Khan has been pushing for dialogue with India since he became prime minister in July and even extended an invitation to India to attend the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation conference in Pakistan. However, despite agreeing to the corridor, India is not willing to engage with Pakistan until cross-border violence stops in Kashmir, according to Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. But at the same time the Kartarpur Corridor may be a small initiative to create some goodwill and ease one pressure on both states. Furthermore recently the Pakistan government approved a proposal to establish a corridor that will allow Hindu pilgrims from India to visit Sharda Peeth, an ancient Hindu temple and cultural site in Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PaK). The Sharda Peeth corridor, will be the second religious tract after Kartarpur corridor that will connect the two neighbouring nations. Both the corridors will give a new fillip to the strained relations between the two neighboring countries.
( The author is a freelancer from Central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Views are his own)
