There will be two stages of celebrations at Dera Baba Nanak on November 9 and Sultanpur Lodhi on November 12, as party politics in Punjab has intensified between the Shiromani Akali Dal backed by the SGPC and the Government of India, and the Congress.
The Kartarpur Corridor is all ready and set to let the devout walk across and pay obeisance to Guru Nanak at the Darbar Sahib Gurdwara across the border. That is where the first guru is said to have spent the last years of his life. There will apparently be one stage from where the Shiromani Akali Dal will hold its inaugural ceremony, and another one from where the Congress-led Punjab government will hold its show!
While the state government under Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has already built a massive stage and pandal at this side of the Kartarpur Corridor in Dera Baba Nanak, the Land Ports Authority of India on Tuesday began work on another stage near the BSF post at Shikhaar Masiahand. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to participate in an inaugural function at this stage!
Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the prime minister will flag off the first jatha through the Kartarpur Corridor on November 9. She made the announcement after Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal chaired a meeting of former and sitting legislators of the party, in a bid to mobilise support for the LPAI stage from where Modi will flag off the first jatha, and also for the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee's celebrations at Sultanpur Lodhi, where too there will be two parallel functions on November 12.
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In all, 575 pilgrims are slated to be part of the inaugural ‘jatha’ to use the Kartarpur Corridor to travel to Darbar Sahib Gurdwara .Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Union ministers Hardeep Puri and Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and MPs and MLAs from Punjab will be part of the jatha.
Meanwhile, a 31-member delegation of Punjab ministers and legislators, slated to go to Nankana Sahib on Wednesday, did not finally get the requisite clearance from Pakistan. They intended to do a 'nagar kirtan'—a procession—to mark the forthcoming Nanak Jayanthi celebrations.