CHANDIGARH: All the three Indian ministers who attended the foundation- laying ceremony of Karatarpur Corridor in Pakistan hoped that the initiative would bring in peace. However, the two Central ministers differed in their reactions with one of them getting emotional while the other one taking a more guarded position.
Terming it as a peace corridor, Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal got emotional during the ceremony and hoped that “it ends all the hatred”. Reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement while referring to the Berlin Wall, an emotional Harsimrat said, “If the Berlin Wall can fall, even the walls between India and Pakistan can also fall. It can be a new beginning in the name of Baba Nanak who had said, ‘Na koi Hindu Na koi Muslim’. The corridor will bring joy and peace to both countries,” she added.
Harsimrat and Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri had crossed over to Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border on Wednesday morning to attend the ground breaking ceremony.
Harsimrat while talking to the media at Attari border said that it was an emotional moment for her and described as historic the decision to build the Kartarpur Corridor. “For me, this is an emotional moment, which has come because of the prayers of millions like me who have been wanting it for 71 years way before I was even born,” she said.
Before crossing over, another Union minister Puri said, “This decision is anchored in hope and goodwill, but we have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities. On account of several factors there is distrust between the two countries. We have felt for very long that we have been at the receiving end of actions of a country which should not have allowed certain forces on its territory.’’
Asked if the decision to develop the Kartarpur Corridor would mean breaking the ice between the two nations, he said, “As our Prime Minister has said whether we are able to transform this into something meaningful in terms of people-to-people contact and breaking the ice and taking it further, that is something we will have to work on.”
Meanwhile Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu during the ground breaking ceremony said both the governments should realise that they have to move forward. He said there had been enough bad blood and that the corridor would be a major opportunity to open the doors of the hearts of the people.