Punjab cabinet minister and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu in his own mesmerising way on Monday recited a couplet hailing the two nations and wishing for peace, prosperity and harmony for the people of both the countries and praising Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in the culminating lines of the couplet.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor at Kartarpur, Pakistan, Sidhu said: "Indian Constitution calls for no discrimination on the basis of caste, colour and creed and this is the same thing Baba Nanak had said 550 years back. If the world has to be changed, the vision needs to be changed, thought has to be changed. No book in the history forbids people of any faith to pay obeisance at a religious place significant to their belief."

Advocating peace and prosperity, he further said: "Much harm and bloodshed has happened and someone must dodge this fire now. I see a big opportunity in form of this corridor. It is a corridor which will connect people, open door to their hearts and would pave way for communication. When communication stops, misunderstandings grow. And under this misunderstanding, confidence is lost. The communication was stopped since very long and I am thankful to the Government of India and Imran Khan for reinstating this connection."

Talking of his dream of a better connected world, he said: "It takes two to tango, both the government should realise that we have to move forward. My father used to tell me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore. I believe that it can go further till Peshawar, till Afghanistan, till Moscow. Your vegetable, rice, can go up to Brussels. It is my dream and I assure that till I have blood in my veins I will be greatly thankful to both the governments."

The Punjab minister arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for the groundbreaking ceremony and said that the event marks "the first steps towards a people's foreign policy."

His visit has also stirred controversy back home in India, where Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that he had asked Sidhu to reconsider his decision to go to Pakistan for the ceremony but had acceded to latter's request as "he did not believe in stopping anyone from undertaking a personal visit".

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