Amid continued unrest over the controversial farm laws, the central government appears to have reckoned the Kartarpur corridor to be a key political tool to woo voters ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls early next year.
The corridor – linking Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Narowal, Pakistan – was closed as far back as March 16, 2020, to contain the spread of COVID-19. But on Tuesday, Home Minister Amit Shah took to Twitter to announce its imminent re-opening.
“In a major decision that will benefit large numbers of Sikh pilgrims, PM @Narendramodi govt has decided to re-open the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor from tomorrow, Nov 17. This decision reflects the immense reverence of Modi govt towards Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and our Sikh community,” he tweeted.
Located along the Ravi River, the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartapur is one of the holiest places for the Sikh community and is believed to be the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev, the father of Sikhism. It is said that Guru Nanak, after completing years of missionary work around the country, finally gathered his followers at the site, living out the rest of his life as a householder, until his death in 1539. With Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary arriving on Friday, the re-opening of the corridor holds immense significance to India’s Sikh community, most of which resides in Punjab.
But the timing holds added importance in view of the upcoming polls in Punjab. Since the proposal of the farm laws, anti-BJP sentiment in the state has been at its highest. Although the central government has insisted it was open to continuing dialogue with farmer unions, also drawing attention to the fact that the apex court has stayed the implementation of the laws, this has done little quell unease among the panthic electorate in Punjab.
The BJP’s presence in Punjab is small but the decision of its oldest ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to sever ties with the saffron outfit and contest elections independently has further dampened any electoral prospects the BJP may have had.
The decision to re-open the corridor then is being viewed by several analysts as a means to score brownie points with Punjab’s non-Hindu electorate. It bears mentioning that it arrives only weeks after the BJP welcomed an alliance with former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Although a veteran leader, Singh’s new party remains untested and at age 79, concerns have emerged over Captain’s political allure.
However, in Captain and the Kartarpur corridor gesture, the saffron party will be hoping it can dent the grand old party’s chances in what is expected to be a three-way contest between the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party.
But the Congress has successfully navigated a political crisis in the state and its appointment of a Dalit chief minister in Charanjit Singh Channi also appears to be a strategically shrewd decision to gain support from the large SC vote bank in the state.
Following the Centre’s decision to re-open the corridor, Congress has also been swift to claim credit for the move. While a delegation led by Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma had met PM Modi on November 14 to push for the corridor’s re-opening, Punjab Chief Minister Channi and Punjab Congress chief Sidhu have also insisted that they had personally taken up the issue with the prime minister and home minister.
The battle for credit aside, it does appear that, despite the emotional importance of the Kartarpur corridor to Punjab’s Sikh community, it is unlikely to be enough to effect any turnaround in political sentiment in Punjab. While the farm laws continue to be a thorn in the central government’s flesh, the BJP’s influence in Punjab will remain muted.
