Navjot Sidhu in war of words with Harsimrat Kaur Badal over Kartarpur corridor issue

Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said Tuesday that he urged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to send a formal request to Pakistan on the Kartarpur corridor issue, leading to fresh attacks on him from the ruling front.

Sidhu said he told Swaraj during a meeting the previous day to request Pakistan to open up a corridor for Sikh pilgrims to visit the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

"The EAM told me the draft is being prepared and that she will write a letter," ANI quoted Sidhu as saying.


Union minister and Akali leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who has claimed Sidhu was reprimanded by Swaraj, said the Punjab minister was being used as a "puppet" by Pakistan.

She said she had a letter from the external affairs minister saying that, contrary to what Sidhu was trying to portray, there was no green signal from Pakistan over the Kartarpur corridor.

ANI reported that the letter from Swaraj said: "Pakistan has so far neither agreed to include visits to Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib by the Indian pilgrims under the bilateral protocol on visits to religious shrines of 1974 nor has it sent any official communication for establishing a corridor."

She also said Swaraj reprimanded Sidhi for " messing up Kartarpur Sahib corridor dialogue and misusing political clearance granted for private visit by hugging military Chief responsible for killing our soldiers."

Sidhu had courted controversy by hugging Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and claimed that he did so as Bajwa told him that the Pakistan government was working out opening of the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims from Indian state of Punjab.