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The BJP Is Politicizing The Kartarpur Corridor But Trying To Blame It On Pakistan - Eurasia Future
Influential BJP ideologue Subramanian Swamy called on the government to suspend construction of the Kartarpur Corridor until Pakistan’s intentions are “set right first”, proving the veracity of an earlier prediction that India will politicize this project in the aftermath of its unilateral “Israeli”-like moves in Kashmir but try to blame it all on Pakistan instead.
India’s playing games with the Sikhs’ religious sentiments by politicizing the Kartarpur Corridor that’s supposed to open in November and facilitate pilgrimages to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib across the border in Pakistan. That shrine is the final resting place of Baba Guru Nanak, the founder of the world’s fifth-largest religion whose 550th birth anniversary is later this year. It’s of supreme religious importance for followers to be able to freely visit that location during such a significant time, but now India’s throwing all their hopes into jeopardy after the latest statement by influential BJP ideologue Subramanian Swamy on the issue. Speaking to reporters, he was quoted by The Hindu as saying that “In my view, in the interest of the nation, the work [on Kartarpur corridor] should not move ahead. Whatever work has taken place [on the project], let it stop there…Pakistan’s intentions are bad and they have to be set right first.”
His remark was likely triggered by the fact that Pakistan didn’t bite the bait earlier this month of being the one to suspend construction of the Kartarpur Corridor in response to India’s unilateral “Israeli”-like moves in Kashmir like New Delhi had hoped that it would, which the author explained more in detail at the time in his piece about how “Pakistan’s Commitment To The Kartarpur Corridor Shows How Much It Respects Sikhs“. From Pakistan’s perspective, humanitarian cooperation with India in support of the Sikh community is separate from the two countries’ disagreements over Kashmir and India’s human rights violations of its occupied people in that disputed territory, which is why it decided not to politicize the Kartarpur Corridor. India had clearly miscalculated, as always, but “the show must go on” and the BJP is now signaling that it might still go through with its preplanned provocation of suspending the project despite there being no “plausible” pretext for it.
The intention in doing so is to trigger the Sikh community of Indian Punjab into organizing protests against Pakistan so that the optics of that event can then be opportunistically misportrayed as also supposedly being protests against the Sikhs For Justice‘s (SFJ) Referendum 2020 campaign for an independent Khalistan that New Delhi alleges without any proof whatsoever is being backed by Islamabad. It is extremely unlikely that any organic protests of this sort would ever take place since the Sikh community is well aware that India is playing games with their religious sentiments because of how fearful it is of the Khalistani cause that so many of them support, though some demonstrations might nevertheless still occur if the BJP bribes a handful of allied Sikhs to participate. The ruling party could then point to the infowar piece recently published by the Daily O as “predicting” that these manufactured protests would take place, thus further advancing their narrative.
Even so, it’s important to stress that the most likely organic protests to develop in response to Swamy’s statement, and especially if India suspends its construction of the Kartarpur Corridor, would be against the state itself for politicizing this project and therefore depriving them of the right to more easily undertake pilgrimages to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib as part of their religious duties. India wouldn’t be expecting these types of protests because of its habit of miscalculating how others will react to its policies, but that doesn’t mean that it would be unprepared to respond to them. It’s foreseeable that government-aligned media in the country would instantly paint those protests as “Pakistani-backed terror provocations” in support of Khalistan, even though Islamabad would have nothing to do with them, the demonstrations would be purely peaceful, and it’s far from certain that the participants as a whole would want to link the Kartarpur Corridor with the Khalistani cause.
Although entirely false, that infowar narrative would be propagated in order to “justify” the state’s public crackdown on the Sikh community undertaken with the intent of “setting an example” that could intimidate the rest of them. The government already gave eight regions the right to utilize the so-called “Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act” (UAPA, the recently proposed amendments to which would give the authorities the power to declare anyone a “terrorist” without due process) against Sikhs accused of supporting the SFJ, which might precede the imposition of the “Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act” in part or all of Indian Punjab ahead of next year’s planned plebiscite on independence. As such, one could say that India is provoking the same protests that it’s fearful of through its politicization of the Kartarpur Corridor in order to have the “pretext” for cracking down on the Sikhs and more openly carrying out its long-running Kashmiri-like ethnic cleansing against them.
Emboldened by the relative lack of international concern over its unilateral “Israeli-“like moves in Kashmir, India now seems like it’s ready to set its sights on the Sikh community as the next large-scale victim of its ethnic cleansing campaign intended to turn the country into a “Hindu Rashtra” (fundamentalist Hindu state). The Sikhs have been oppressed by India since independence and their plight only became worse after the horrible events of 1984, but their slow-motion genocide might soon speed up if India goes forth with the aforementioned scenario that could realistically be put into motion by the state’s politicization of the Kartarpur Corridor. Just like in Kashmir, India would try to “justify” its actions in Punjab as being a response to “Pakistani-backed terrorists” after already attempting to precondition people into believing this infowar narrative. The rest of the world’s silence, barring a few possible exceptions, would give India a carte blanche and lead to an even worse disaster.
DISCLAIMER: The author writes for this publication in a private capacity which is unrepresentative of anyone or any organization except for his own personal views. Nothing written by the author should ever be conflated with the editorial views or official positions of any other media outlet or institution.
Influential BJP ideologue Subramanian Swamy called on the government to suspend construction of the Kartarpur Corridor until Pakistan’s intentions are “set right first”, proving the veracity of an earlier prediction that India will politicize this project in the aftermath of its unilateral “Israeli”-like moves in Kashmir but try to blame it all on Pakistan instead.
India’s playing games with the Sikhs’ religious sentiments by politicizing the Kartarpur Corridor that’s supposed to open in November and facilitate pilgrimages to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib across the border in Pakistan. That shrine is the final resting place of Baba Guru Nanak, the founder of the world’s fifth-largest religion whose 550th birth anniversary is later this year. It’s of supreme religious importance for followers to be able to freely visit that location during such a significant time, but now India’s throwing all their hopes into jeopardy after the latest statement by influential BJP ideologue Subramanian Swamy on the issue. Speaking to reporters, he was quoted by The Hindu as saying that “In my view, in the interest of the nation, the work [on Kartarpur corridor] should not move ahead. Whatever work has taken place [on the project], let it stop there…Pakistan’s intentions are bad and they have to be set right first.”
His remark was likely triggered by the fact that Pakistan didn’t bite the bait earlier this month of being the one to suspend construction of the Kartarpur Corridor in response to India’s unilateral “Israeli”-like moves in Kashmir like New Delhi had hoped that it would, which the author explained more in detail at the time in his piece about how “Pakistan’s Commitment To The Kartarpur Corridor Shows How Much It Respects Sikhs“. From Pakistan’s perspective, humanitarian cooperation with India in support of the Sikh community is separate from the two countries’ disagreements over Kashmir and India’s human rights violations of its occupied people in that disputed territory, which is why it decided not to politicize the Kartarpur Corridor. India had clearly miscalculated, as always, but “the show must go on” and the BJP is now signaling that it might still go through with its preplanned provocation of suspending the project despite there being no “plausible” pretext for it.
The intention in doing so is to trigger the Sikh community of Indian Punjab into organizing protests against Pakistan so that the optics of that event can then be opportunistically misportrayed as also supposedly being protests against the Sikhs For Justice‘s (SFJ) Referendum 2020 campaign for an independent Khalistan that New Delhi alleges without any proof whatsoever is being backed by Islamabad. It is extremely unlikely that any organic protests of this sort would ever take place since the Sikh community is well aware that India is playing games with their religious sentiments because of how fearful it is of the Khalistani cause that so many of them support, though some demonstrations might nevertheless still occur if the BJP bribes a handful of allied Sikhs to participate. The ruling party could then point to the infowar piece recently published by the Daily O as “predicting” that these manufactured protests would take place, thus further advancing their narrative.
Even so, it’s important to stress that the most likely organic protests to develop in response to Swamy’s statement, and especially if India suspends its construction of the Kartarpur Corridor, would be against the state itself for politicizing this project and therefore depriving them of the right to more easily undertake pilgrimages to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib as part of their religious duties. India wouldn’t be expecting these types of protests because of its habit of miscalculating how others will react to its policies, but that doesn’t mean that it would be unprepared to respond to them. It’s foreseeable that government-aligned media in the country would instantly paint those protests as “Pakistani-backed terror provocations” in support of Khalistan, even though Islamabad would have nothing to do with them, the demonstrations would be purely peaceful, and it’s far from certain that the participants as a whole would want to link the Kartarpur Corridor with the Khalistani cause.
Although entirely false, that infowar narrative would be propagated in order to “justify” the state’s public crackdown on the Sikh community undertaken with the intent of “setting an example” that could intimidate the rest of them. The government already gave eight regions the right to utilize the so-called “Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act” (UAPA, the recently proposed amendments to which would give the authorities the power to declare anyone a “terrorist” without due process) against Sikhs accused of supporting the SFJ, which might precede the imposition of the “Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act” in part or all of Indian Punjab ahead of next year’s planned plebiscite on independence. As such, one could say that India is provoking the same protests that it’s fearful of through its politicization of the Kartarpur Corridor in order to have the “pretext” for cracking down on the Sikhs and more openly carrying out its long-running Kashmiri-like ethnic cleansing against them.
Emboldened by the relative lack of international concern over its unilateral “Israeli-“like moves in Kashmir, India now seems like it’s ready to set its sights on the Sikh community as the next large-scale victim of its ethnic cleansing campaign intended to turn the country into a “Hindu Rashtra” (fundamentalist Hindu state). The Sikhs have been oppressed by India since independence and their plight only became worse after the horrible events of 1984, but their slow-motion genocide might soon speed up if India goes forth with the aforementioned scenario that could realistically be put into motion by the state’s politicization of the Kartarpur Corridor. Just like in Kashmir, India would try to “justify” its actions in Punjab as being a response to “Pakistani-backed terrorists” after already attempting to precondition people into believing this infowar narrative. The rest of the world’s silence, barring a few possible exceptions, would give India a carte blanche and lead to an even worse disaster.
DISCLAIMER: The author writes for this publication in a private capacity which is unrepresentative of anyone or any organization except for his own personal views. Nothing written by the author should ever be conflated with the editorial views or official positions of any other media outlet or institution.
