The 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev has invoked US interest. (Source: REUTERS/File)With dramatically changing geo-political situation in the South Asia, the celebrations of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev has invoked US interest in the occasion as an opportunity to build people-to-people ties between India and Pakistan.
Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary and idea of Kartarpur Corridor dedicated to this anniversary has kept the dialogue alive between India and Pakistan for almost last one year despite Pulwama attack.
A recent tweet of US’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, headed by acting Assistant Secretary Alice G Wells, linked the celebrations with ‘people-to-people ties’.
The Bureau deals with US foreign policy and US relations with the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
It tweeted on August 2, “Great news that Sikhs from #India and #Pakistan together celebrated the 550th anniversary of the birth of Guru Nanak at Nankana Sahib. We welcome efforts to build people-to-people ties between India and Pakistan.”
The tweet came day after a religious procession from Nankana Sahib in Pakistan entered India. It was first such procession organised by the SGPC in the last 72 years. The religious procession crossed into India only with Indian pilgrims on August 1.
Last month too, the US State Department had said that it was “incredibly supportive” of anything that increases “people-to-people ties between India and Pakistan”.
It was on July 17, 2019, three days after India and Pakistan agreed to open Kartarpur Corridor on the occasion of 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev due in November, that State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus was asked to comment. She had said, “That was certainly a good news report, wasn’t it? We encourage it.”
