India uses Nankana Sahib incident to blunt Pakistan’s pro-Sikh card, defend CAA

Chandigarh: The hooliganism outside Gurdwara Nankana Sahib in Pakistan and threat to the Sikhs there is highly condemnable. At the root of the trouble was purely a personal issue and the person leading the trouble-makers was in running feud with a Sikh family.

The trouble was controlled immediately by the administration.

The attack on minorities everywhere should be condemned.

The desecration and demolition of places of worship of every religion everywhere should be condemned.

It is good that the Nankana Sahib incident was unequivocally condemned by every section in India, including from Coimbatore in the deep South. The organisation that rightly raised this issue was the Vishav Hindu Parishad. The Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, the Sikh front of the Sangh Parivar parent body RSS, has decided to take up the matter with the UN.

These are the people from the organisations, of course minus these Sikh leaders, who had welcomed the army attack on the Golden Temple (Darbar Sahib) code named Operation Bluestar in June 1984. But then as it is said, better late than never.

However, these very people were silent when the Uttar Pradesh government where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power only last week stopped nagar kirtan being taken out by the Sikhs in Pilibhit area and case registered against 55 of them. The Sikh activists are now also focussing onMangu Matta associated with Guru Nanak  in Jagannath Puri that was recently damaged during what was said to be anti-encroachment drive.

The Nankana Sahib incident needs to be analysed in the broader framework of Sikh religio-political discourse in the region.

This incident does not suit the Pakistan government that has been following pro-Sikh agenda as policy and whose manifestation is the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor that provides via free access to the devotees of Baba Nanak  from Dera Baba Babak on the Indian side. The initiative to accept the long cherished demand of the Sikhs had come from Pakistan although India had not pressed for it. There was even element of disbelief initially when cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu broke the news after his return from Pakistan where he had attended Imran Khan’s inauguration as his personal guest. One important Sikh leader in the ruling dispensation held a press conference quoting a letter from the external affairs minister to say there was no such move.

Sikhs all over the globe have been joining hands with the Muslims in the demonstrations against revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir. This has been a major worry of India. Punjab provided protection to the Kashmiris during that crisis period and opened gurdwaras to shelter them.

In the protest against CAA, non-Akali Dal Sikh organisations are active participants.

Kartarpur Sahib Corridor is a very subtle design in Pakistan’s pro-Sikh strategy. Ironically, it is India that is facilitating the Pakistan’s design at the Corridor by way of comparable treatment extended to the devotees. The devotees return overwhelmed with the welcome they receive on the other side of the Radcliffe  that divides the two Punjabs.

Seen in the backdrop of this strategic political discourse, the trouble at Nankana Sahib suits India to blunt the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor card. The Akali Dal leaders have played into the hands of the BJP government as usual.

The BJP has used the incident to defend the Constitution (Amendment) Act by arguing that the legislation was justified in the context of persecution of non-Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

It may mentioned that besides playing the strategic Sikh card at the giobal level, Pakistan is promoting religious tourism that essentially is Sikh tourism. Pakistan just can’t afford another such trouble at any Sikh religious place in that country.

The timing of the Nankana Sahib trouble is important.

The timing coincides with the continuing protests across India against CAA. The Sikhs minus the Akalis are opposing the CAA. The way the Sangh Parivar that now also includes the Shiromani Akali Dal reacted in a chorus is manifestation in itself as to whom the incident suits.

Perhaps it is for this reason that the gurdwara bodies in some countries while condemning the incident have reacted not only cautiously but differently.

The incident  should be analysed in the context as to whom it suits.

What is clear is that the Nankana Sahib incident dents Pakistan’s Sikh card via the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor. Going by Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, this Corridor is ISI’s design.