Matter of faith, not politics or business: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann slams pilgrimage bar | Chandigarh News

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday slammed the BJP-led central govt for not allowing Sikh pilgrims to visit Pakistan for Guru Nanak Dev’s parkash purb (birth anniversary), despite the Indian cricket team playing a match against Pakistan in Dubai. He accused the Centre of having an “anti-Punjab syndrome” and trying to “ruin the state”. Speaking to media, Mann said, “I want to urge the PM to desist from playing with the sentiments of Punjabis. I don’t understand if the BJP‘s policy is against Pakistan or its own people.”Mann highlighted that while ports in Gujarat and Mumbai were open with Karachi, trade via the Attari land border in Punjab was closed. He claimed that this was due to a grudge because Punjab did not vote for the BJP or because the Modi govt had to apologise after the 2020-21 farmers’ protest.He alleged that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was controlled by their country’s army, and it would receive a share of the profits from the match. These funds, he claim, would be used to “infiltrate terrorists, guns, and drugs into India”.He also demanded the reopening of Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims, saying he would also write to the Centre for this. He added if cricket matches could be played, there was no reason to stop devotees from visiting Kartarpur Sahib or Nankana Sahib. “Will things work as per their (Centre’s) wishes?” he said, using the Punjabi idiom “kade marja chidiye, kade jindi hoja” (sometimes die, sometimes live) to suggest a double standard. He said for Punjabis, paying obeisance at gurdwaras in Pakistan was a matter of faith, not a political or business issue, and was part of their daily prayers. He criticised the inconsistency of being unable to visit these sacred sites due to strained relations with Pakistan, while still being able to play cricket matches with them. He attributed this to the financial interests of the match’s “producers”.He criticised the narrative that hailed Indian players for not shaking hands with their Pakistani counterparts. “The teams did play the match. Indian players didn’t say they won’t catch their balls,” he said.He also questioned Union minister Anurag Thakur’s assertion that India must participate in multinational tournaments, pointing out that “India pulled out of the Asia Cup in 1987”. Additionally, he slammed the narrative of linking the match to ‘Operation Sindoor’ while simultaneously claiming that sports should be separate from politics. “Cricket matches can wait, and so can movies, but religious occasions are time-bound. It’s ironic that our own Union government is putting these restrictions on us,” added Mann.Mann again compares match to filmWithout naming Punjabi singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann said, “When an artist cast a Pakistani actress in his film, he was called a traitor, and their troll army attacked him. This happened even though the film was shot before India-Pakistan relations soured after the Pahalgam attack. The PM himself remarked that ‘blood and water cannot flow at the same time’. A film’s cancellation harms the producer and the artist. Yet, when a cricket match was played yesterday, the ‘producer’ was the son of ‘Bade Saab’. That match was telecast live, despite the film being made before the escalation of India-Pakistan tensions. What was the compulsion to play the match?” he added.‘Not a rupee from package’Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann also claimed that the central govt’s Rs 1,600-crore relief package, announced by PM Narendra Modi during his visit to Punjab last week, was yet to be released.