Kartarpur Corridor is an effort to correct a wrong done in 1947, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday attacking the Congress regime for its inability to bring Kartarpur Sahib under Indian jurisdiction during Partition.
At a function at his residence to release a commemorative coin as part of the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of 10th Sikh guru Guru Gobind Singh, Mr. Modi said, “A mistake took place in August, 1947. It [the corridor] is an atonement of the mistake. An important place of our guru was only a few kilometres away. But it could not be made part [of India during Partition] ... the corridor is an effort to reduce the damage.”
He said now devotees did not have to look at the shrine in Pakistan using binoculars and they could visit the place without visa using the corridor. Guru Nanak passed away in Kartarpur in 1539 and the site is one of the most revered for the Sikh community.
The Prime Minister also came down on the Congress for the 1984 riots that took place following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
He said be it Guru Nanak or Guru Gobind Singh, they had taught us to be on the side of justice.
Following the path shown by them, the Central government was trying to get justice for the people who suffered during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Mr. Modi said. “The Central government is making efforts to get justice for the period of injustice which started in 1984. For decades, mothers, sisters, daughters and sons have shed tears, the law will deliver justice, wipe [their] tears,” he said referring to the riots.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and several Sikh leaders were present at the event.
