Zaheer-ud-Din Babar
Pakistan and India’s realities are complexed and deep rooted.This is the reason that there is no easy way to predict future developments after the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor. The major reason that the Two Nation Theory is still valid is because there are Extremist Hindus who have, till date, not accepted Pakistan as an independent and sovereign state. In light of this, the most important question is: what now?
It is the dream of every sensible citizen of Pakistan and India to see the issues existing between them solved in a peaceful manner. This initiative taken by the Prime Minister Imran Khan is seen as many as a glimmer of hope that other issues shall also be solved in a peaceful manner. Undoubtedly, this initiative has pleased the whole Sikh community and they have currently nothing but kind words to say about the Pakistani government. It is not wrong to assume that the Kartarpur corridor has significantly improved Pakistan’s standing worldwide.Another hoped for effect by the opening of the Kartarpur corridor is a de-escalation in tensions between Pakistan and India. This is a rather naïve hope, with the BJP of India doing everything in its power to prevent a normalization of relations with Pakistan. The Prime Minister of India, Modi himself, wants to escalate tensions with Pakistan. It is in the favor of India to create enmity between the Muslims and the Hindus. On the other hand, it is clear that America and other influential countries want to open the Kartarpur corridor. They see this opening as a new beginning in the Indo-Pak relations. This is beneficial, as the international community is aware of the negative effects caused in the region due to tensions between India and Pakistan. They hope to utilize the Sikh community to defuse relations between the two countries.
Many, however believe that, in their hurry to complete this historical project, they have neglected the Kashmir issue. A main objection raised by the critics is that Pakistan has bargained nothing with India in order to open to corridor. This gives the impression that Pakistan only wants to create goodwill between themselves and the Sikh community and nothing else.
In this regard point of view is that Kartarpur corridor push back Kashmir issue, On Pakistani side many believes that government seems to be hurry to complete this historical project, One of the major objection is that PTI government can’t not bargain with Indian government, So the impression is that Islamabad only want create good will in Sikh community nothing else.
On the other hand, History tells us that, in 1999, the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee proposed the Kartarpur corridor as a part of Delhi Lahore Bus diplomacy. Thus, it can be easily deduced that this improvement in relations is not now. The main issue is that the relations improve only for a short period of time before they deteriorate once more. Even though a vast majority in both the nations want peace and prosperity in South Asia, both nations still haven’t solved their disputes. The main reason for this is the Indian policy, which continuously creates hurdles and roadblocks. A huge roadblock for peace in the region is the rise of the BJP. The BJP believes in the Hindutva ideology, which is mainly anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistani. The main tragedy is that the majority of the Indian media supports the BJP’s narrative, thus betraying their responsibilities towards their democratic norms. The so called educated Indian journalists have still not realized that the BJP’s hateful policies will not be fruitful is building positive relations with Pakistan and sooner or later they will face severe consequences as a result of their consequences, which may even threaten the survival of the country itself.
