Vice President Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur Corridor project
Intense politics and a fight for credit over the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims saw a Punjab minister today black-taping his name and that of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh from a plaque, hours before a ground-breaking ceremony by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.
"Why are the names of Parkash and Sukhbir Badal on the stone, they are not part of the executive, it is not a BJP-Akali Dal event," said Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a minister in the Congress government of Punjab, objecting to the inclusion of the leaders of BJP's ally Akali Dal in the central government ceremony.
"This is not a war for taking credit. Nobody's name should have been there. 'The Guru Ka Marg dedicated by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu' should have been mentioned instead," Mr Randhawa said. The particular foundation stone was removed after the minister's protest.
The new road that was launched today in Gurdaspur will link to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan.
India is sending two union ministers, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri, to attend the ceremony to be held in Pakistan on Wednesday after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj declined an invitation from her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
This morning, Congress leaders criticised Harsimrat Kaur Badal, an Akali Dal leader, for accepting the invite. They reminded the union minister that she had called Punjab minister Navjot Sidhu a "puppet of the Pakistan army" after he attended the oath ceremony of Imran Khan as Pakistan prime minister in August and hugged Pakistani army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa during the function. Mr Sidhu had said he hugged the army chief after he was told that Pakistan was keen on the Kartarpur corridor to facilitate Sikh pilgrims from India.
"My hug turned out good for 15-16 crores of people as the central government is now making move to develop the corridor," Mr Sidhu, who is set to travel to Pakistan for the event, said earlier.
Sukhjinder Singh tweeted: "Harsimrat Kaur Badal had called Navjot Sidhu a 'qaum ka gaddar', now she herself is going to Pakistan, with what face will she go?" He also told reporters, while covering his name on the plaque with tape, "Did they (Akali Dal) come here to offer prayers while in power? They are only trying to take credit because they have an alliance with the BJP."
Ms Badal took to Twitter to respond to the criticism.
She wrote that it was her party that had the Kartarpur resolution passed in the assembly in 2010 when the Akali Dal was in power in Punjab, but the Congress-led government at the centre tried to "deny the corridor."
"Now our efforts fructified with the Cabinet decision to open up the corridor."
While Navjot Sidhu revels in his role in the corridor, his boss Captain Amarinder Singh has declined Pakistan's invitation, citing continued terror attacks in his state and killings of soldiers by Pakistani armed forces. The Chief Minister did attend today's event in Gurdaspur.
The BJP-led government at the centre, of which the Akali Dal is a part, approved the Kartarpur road last week and decided to launch it today, two days before Pakistan.
Kartarpur Sahib, a Sikh place of worship where Guru Nanak is believed to have spent 18 years of his life, is located in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab province. There have been demands for long to build a corridor linking it with Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Punjab.