Summary:
CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday hit out at Union minister Vijay Sampla , accusing him of trying to “scuttle the dreams of the Sikh community by unnecessarily complicating the process of travel and darshan at the historic Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara”.In a press statement, Amarinder alleged that instead of finding ways of facilitating the Sikh pilgrims, the central government, especially responsible elected representatives such as Sampla were constantly putting hurdles. Sampla’s claim that all Punjabis had passports was highly irresponsible and wrong, and showed how misinformed and disconnected from the masses the Union minister was, the CM added.“The BJP-SAD’s efforts to stymie the efforts of the Punjab government were evident in the Centre’s various acts relating to the corridor project, including the recent statement of Vijay Sampla on behalf of the BJP-led Union government, which was now coming out with various excuses and impediments to hassle-free travel by Sikh pilgrims,” said Amarinder. He said that while passport waiver was not an impossibility, the visa requirement could definitely be done away with for devotees crossing the corridor by allowing travel to Kartarpur Sahib on a travel permit meant only for limited movement to the Gurdwara Sahib for paying obeisance.Amarinder said the statement of former Punjab BJP chief was reflective of his party’s anti-minority attitude and the Modi government’s continued attempts to sideline the country’s minorities to further its politically motivated agenda.Lambasting the Union minister Sampla for rejecting his proposal out of hand, without even studying the possibility for passport waiver for the pilgrims to Kartarpur Sahib, Amarinder said while the BJP was, on the one hand, trying to take credit for the opening of the corridor, it was, at the same time, doing its best to put hurdles in the way of its smooth operationalization.He added that Sampla’s statement had once again shown that neither the ruling BJP nor its ally SAD were interested in facilitating the the poor and illiterate pilgrims by making travel hassle-free..