Qureshi had said that the Pakistan premier's "Kartarpur googly" had forced India to send two ministers to the groundbreaking ceremony for the corridor.
In a teardown of the bonhomie shared briefly by India and Pakistan over an inaugural ceremony for a crossborder corridor for Sikh pilgrimage, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's "Kartarpur googly" remark has sparked a Twitter war between the two countries.
While External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj found Qureshi's remarks "disrespectful to Sikh sentiments", her parliamentary colleague, union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who had attended the groundbreaking ceremony at Kartarpur last Wednesday, urged Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to take action against his foreign minister.
Qureshi had said that the Pakistan premier's "Kartarpur googly" had forced India to send two ministers to the groundbreaking ceremony for the corridor. On November 28, Imran Khan laid the foundation stone for the corridor linking two gurdwaras on both sides of the border in Pakistan Punjab province's Narowal area. Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri along with Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu had attended the event.
Soon after Qureshi made the remark, Swaraj took to Twitter to condemn it, writing that it had exposed Qureshi and showed he had no respect for the sentiments of the Sikh community. On the back foot, Qureshi on Sunday claimed that his comment were being deliberately misrepresented.
"Dragging my comments towards Sikh sentiments is a deliberate attempt to misrepresent and mislead. What I said was strictly with reference to bilateral interaction with the Indian government . We have deep respect for Sikh sentiments and no amount of distortions or controversies would change it," he tweeted. "We have taken this historic initiative in good faith and will carry it forward in good faith," he said.
Earlier on Sunday morning Harsimrat Kaur Badal tweeted, "I urge Pak PM @ImranKhanPTI to take action against his minister for hurting the sentiments of Sikhs and peace efforts by equating attendance at function at Sri Kartarpur Sahib with trapping India by bowling a googly. Nothing can be more disgusting than this."
A leading Pakistani commentator Mazhar Abbas said that Imran Khan taking over the high office has led to cricketisation of Pakistan's politics. Terminologies such as 'umpire', 'captain', 'wicket', 'bowled out' , 'match-fixing' and now 'googly' are part of political parlance in Pakistan.
In Bikaner for a poll campaign, Swaraj said it was a fight between the three captains, Pakistan's cricket captain Imran Khan, India's military captain Amarinder Singh and Congress captain Rahul Gandhi. "First of all, it was pious work. Imran Khan should answer whether it was a googly," she said, as it was a matter of "sentiments of Sikhs from all across the world".
Former Foreign Secretary Salman Haidar also took exception to Qureshi's remarks, saying while cricket gave us too many metaphors and images, there were no googlies in any of this. "It is a sincere effort by both countries, especially from our side, to gratify the sentiments of people in the name of and to celebrate life, huge achievements, love, and affection that have been implicit and projected in the life of Guru Nanak Dev. That is the more important issue. Googlies and so on are entirely secondary," said Haider
If Pak can't fight terror alone, it can seek our help: Rajnath
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said Pakistan could seek India's help if it cannot handle the fight against terrorism alone. Addressing a press conference in Jaipur, he said, "I want to ask the Pakistani Prime Minister that in Afghanistan, a fight can be carried out against terror and Taliban in Aghanistan with the help of the US, then Pakistan can seek help against terrorism from India if it feels that it cannot handle it alone," he said. He also said that Jammu and Kashmir was not an "issue" as it was an integral part of the country. "The issue is of terrorism, and Pakistan can discuss it," Singh said.
'PROPAGANDA WAR OVER CORRIDOR'
Pakistan's Foreign Office has come down heavily on the controversies being triggered over the enterprise. "We are deeply dismayed at the relentless negative propaganda campaign being waged by a section of the Indian media against Pakistan on the Kartarpur Corridor initiative," the Pakistan Foreign Office said in a statement.
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