JASWANT SINGH GANDAM / RAMAN NEHRA
India Post News Service
PHAGWARA: MLA and former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu – the cricketer-turned-politician – displayed the best of his oratorical skills, laced with ‘shero-Shayari ’(couplets), and on November 9 bowled over a huge gathering in the premises of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib on the occasion of the opening of Pakistan section of the Kartarpur Corridor.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Sidhu’s close friend, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Kureshi, other dignitaries of civil and army administration and some members of the first Jatha of pilgrims from India, including its head Giani Harpreet Singh, Acting Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib, and MP-cum-film star Sunny Deol were among those present.
Sidhu sat beside Imran Khan and enjoyed VVIP status. It may be mentioned here that Sidhu was extended the first invitation by Imran Khan on this side of the border and was invited as a special guest by the Pakistan government. Imran Khan delayed the inaugural function by two hours to wait for Sidhu and visited the passenger terminal to receive him and took him along to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib.
A cynosure of all eyes, Sidhu stole the show. Besides Giani Harpreet Singh, Sidhu was the only person who was allowed to address the gathering. Both Imran Khan and Qureshi mentioned him more than once in their address. Even Giani Harpreet Singh made his mention.
People welcomed Sidhu with placards. A placard in the hands of a boy read, “Welcome Sidhu Uncle!”
Using the choicest similes and metaphors for Imran Khan like ‘Sohna Yaar’ (a beauteous/darling friend), ’Babbar Sher’ (lion) and ‘Dilan da Sikander’ (Sikander of hearts), Sidhu said that Khan had concretized the 72-year-old dream of four Sikh generations in just 10 months by opening the corridor.
Batting for the opening of borders, Sidhu said his dream was that people should have ‘saag te makki di roti’ in Amritsar in the morning and relish ‘biryani’ in Lahore during noon, returning to their place after doing trade in both the destinations.
Pointing to Imran, he said that while Sikander (Alexander) had won the world by striking terror, “you (Imran) have won the hearts of 14 crore Sikhs with love by opening the corridor”.
“My ‘Taya’ (father’s elder brother) died of shedding tears for having ‘darshan’ of Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara and four generations of Sikhs kept weeping for it but you Khan Sahib have as large a heart as an ocean and fulfilled the dream of 14 crore Sikhs,” he remarked amid frequent ‘Bole So Nihal’ and ‘Sidhu Zindabad’, ’Imran Khan Zindabad’ chants from the gathering.
He also thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the corridor. Having a dig at the detractors of his famous ‘japhi’ (hug) during his visit for the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan as Prime Minister, Sidhu asserted that “japhi rang liyayi” (it bore desired fruits).
“If one hug could result in the opening of the corridor, then we should solve all our issues by having more hugs,” he pleaded.
He read out specially penned poetic lines on hugging people.
Calling himself ‘Babey da naukar,chakar,kookar’ (servile servant of Baba Nanak), Sidhu said that he gave credit of corridor opening to the Guru who preached ‘tera tera’ (all of God’s), not ‘mera mera’ (mine). “Corridor is not a matter of mere entry. It is a ‘paigam’(message) of ‘sarbat da bhala’(welfare of all),’mohabbat’(love) and ‘eka’(unity),” he remarked.
“Langhey nu hulara den wala lakh da, adikka dauhan wala kakh da’ (he who supported the corridor had values of lakhs in public eyes and he who had created hurdles in its way was just nothing),” he said.
Saying that ‘Ye dil maangey mor’ (this hearts yearns for more), Sidhu told Imran that he had one more request to make. “Open the borders”, he pleaded amid loud cheers from the crowd.
“My dream is to go across Uzbekistan, Kazakistan through Pakistan,” he quipped. Known for his one liners, poetry, improvised couplets and rhetoric, Sidhu interspersed his speech with his trademark interjections of ‘Thoko Tali’ (cheer loudly) at which the mesmerised crowd used to burst into cheers.
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