Nov 2 to see US-based professor’s ‘Punjab waters meeting’ initiative

ISLAMABAD: With Pak-India relations at their lowest ebb, shall it be the five rivers of the Punjab that would bring citizens of the two together? Sour ties are marked by rare visits by citizens to the either country with India clamping down harshly on granting visas. 

However, November 2 should see Indians from eastern Punjab and their Pakistani counterparts take water from Sutlej and Beas from East Punjab and Chenab, Jhelum and Ravi from here and pour it into Ravi in Lahore.

Media reports talk about a unique initiative “Vichrae Panj Paaniyan Da Mael” (Separated waters of five rivers meet) being taken by peace activists from both countries. In other words, if politics will not allow citizens to meet, at least their river waters can merge together.

The mastermind behind this unique venture is a little known US-based professor Tarunjit Singh Butalia “After three months of taking roses from Lahore to Golden Temple Amritsar in a single day trip of spirituality ‘pilgrimage of love’, now US based professor Tarunjit Singh Butalia has decided to make waters from five rivers to meet near Lahore”, says a report.

He had plucked roses from Hazir Bagh in Lahore, tucked them into his turban, and offered them at the Golden Temple sarivar in Amritsar. He would then take this holy water to sprinkle it on the rose plant.

The water samples, the report adds, “will be collected at Darbar Madho Lal Hussain from where it will be taken in a procession for river Ravi with traditional drummers. It will be immersed in Ravi amidst traditional Punjabi kalooms, music, poetry in honour of the rivers of Punjab and their waters.”

Interestingly there is little news about the Kartarpur Corridor these days as Indians wanting to come into Pakistan are discouraged while the Indian government complains that Pakistan charges in US dollars which is a prohibitive amount.

While the bilateral agreement allows 5000 Indian devotees per day less than 500 are seen on any given day. But for a change, there are proposals ahead of the upcoming ‘Parkash Purab’ (birth anniversary) of Guru Nanak Dev, the first master of Sikhism to reduce the service fee levied by Pakistan on devotees visiting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib.

Indians have been asking their government to do away with entering the Corridor on a passport, rather their identity card or Adhaar card should be sufficient. With hardly any significant meetings at the diplomatic levels, it would be a breakthrough for religious tourism if both these conditions are done away with for Prakash Purab on November 27.