People chant 'Pakistan Zindabad' at Sidhu's rally in Rajasthan
This comes after PM Imran performed the ground-breaking of the Kartarpur Corridor
NEW DELHI (Dunya News) – Indian media on Sunday again lambasted at Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu after hundreds of people at his rally chanted slogans of “Pakistan Zindabad”.
Following the event, Indian media lashed out at the minister.
This comes at the Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu’s rally in Rajasthan few days after Prime Minister Imran Khan performed the ground-breaking of the four kilometers long Kartarpur Corridor.
The event was attended by Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri and Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed, as well as Indian ministers, foreign diplomats, Sikh yatris and a delegation of Indian journalists.
The Indian delegation included Minister for Food Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister for Housing Hardeep S. Puri, Indian Punjab Minister for Local Government and Tourism and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu.
As the event commenced, a film about the pilgrimage of members of the Sikh community to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib was aired for the audience.
In his address at the ceremony, Sidhu and Indian Minister for Food Harsimrat Kaur Badal thanked PM Khan for opening the corridor and expressed good wishes.
Sidhu said that India’s Constitution says there will be no discrimination on the basis of caste or creed. Baba Guru Nanak said this 549 years ago. Religion should never be seen through politics and terrorism, he added.
Sidhu stressed that peace should prevail now as there had been enough bloodshed.
“Both the governments should realise that we have to move forward. My father used to tell me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore, I believe that it can go further till Peshawar, till Afghanistan,” says Sidhu.
On the occasion, visibly emotional Indian Minister for Food Harsimrat Kaur Badal went on to say that she had never thought of visiting Pakistan but is now here on this historic day. "I saw the corridor becoming a reality in Indian Punjab there and now I am seeing it here," she said.
“When the wall of Berlin can be brought down, then hatred between India and Pakistan can be brought down too with opening of Kartarpur Corridor. It can be a new beginning in the name of Baba Nanak who said ‘na koi Hindu na koi Musalman lekin ek Onkar,” she declared.
The corridor will connect Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of Narowal district with Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur District.
Pakistan will build the corridor from the Indian border to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur while the other part from Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab’s Gurdaspur district upto the border will be constructed by India.
It will facilitate the Sikh pilgrims visiting their most sacred sites in Pakistan. The initiative for opening the corridor was taken by Pakistan which was later endorsed by the Indian side.
The initiative has widely been lauded both in Pakistan and India as a step towards building bridges between the two countries.
