The Government of India on September 12 asked various state governments, including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh, not to process the applications of pilgrims for visiting Nanakana Sahib in Pakistan on the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, falling in November.
The decision has obviously been taken in view of the security situation and the tensions prevailing between the two countries since the Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent Operation Sindoor.
However, some Sikh organisations, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex representative body of the Sikhs, have criticised the decision of the Government of India.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has also opposed the decision saying the Government of India was hurting the sentiments of Sikhs. He also asked if India could play Pakistan in the Asia Cricket Cup, why cannot the Sikh pilgrims visit Nanakana Sahib, the birthplace of the first Sikh Guru.
It is not only the SGPC, but most of the Sikh community members also who have disapproved of the Government of India’s decision not to allow the pilgrims to visit Nanakana Sahib this year. Some of them have also attached political motives to it by accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party government of being “hostile” towards the Sikh sentiments.
Of course, such allegations have no basis as Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular is known for his special bonding with Sikhism and the Sikh community. He is often seen in different gurdwaras performing seva and ardas.
India and Pakistan have fought a war just a few months ago. Although it was a short war with Pakistan seeking ceasefire within hours after Indian retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, the relationship between the two countries has been far from normal, rather continues to be bitter. Allowing Indian citizens to travel to a hostile country under such a hostile atmosphere will be too foolhardy a thing for any government to allow.
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The SGPC and some other community leaders assume that nobody in Pakistan can harm the Sikh pilgrims for obvious political reasons. Pakistan’s ISI has been trying to play up the secessionist sentiments as well. During the recent Indo-Pak skirmishes, the ISI even tried to use social media and artificial intelligence to create a wedge among the Indian defence forces. This was duly and rightly snubbed by the community members across India.
Those assuming that nobody can harm the Sikh pilgrims need to appreciate and understand that the sentiment prevailing among a section of people in Pakistan is bitterly hostile. Even if the majority of people in Pakistan may not be hostile towards the Sikh pilgrims, but it does not take a majority to create mischief or harm. Even some “lone wolf” can do that. In that unfortunate situation, the onus will be on the Government of India as to why, in the first place, it allowed the Indian pilgrims to travel to Pakistan.
When tempers are running so high, the enemy does not make any difference among the people from the “hostile nation”.
After the recent rant by the Jaish-e-Mohammad chief saying that India had completely wiped out the family of Azhar Masood in Bahawalpur, India needs to exercise more caution about its citizens. What is the guarantee that the JeM will not try to target the Indian pilgrims travelling to Nankana Sahib?
There is another risk that they can attack the pilgrims and blame it on Indian security agencies like they have been blaming the killings of some other militants killed in recent years in Pakistan.
In the age of algorithm driven narratives, it is not very difficult to carry out an incident and then build up a narrative and blame the Indian agencies.
The Government of India has taken a wise decision of not letting the Sikh pilgrims travel to Pakistan. The opposition parties like the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress will do well by not politicising the issue and suggest that the BJP was trying to settle scores with Punjabis and Sikhs as it had failed to make any inroads into Punjab.
This is the most insensitive and irresponsible assumption, which will mean playing into the hands of the enemy and creating a sense of bitterness back home.
Interestingly, in the aftermath of the Galwan clash between Indian and Chinese troops in 2020, which left 20 Indian soldiers and several Chinese dead, the Government of India suspended the annual Mansarovar Yatra. The Yatra remained suspended till this year and was resumed only after relations with China improved. But nobody attributed any motives in that case.
Also read: India and China: Enemies at the border, friends in prosperity
The way the BJP government at the Centre suspended the Mansarovar Yatra for the security and diplomatic considerations in 2020, it has taken a similar decision in 2025 by not allowing the Sikh pilgrims to visit Nanakana Sahib in Pakistan, which is a hostile country and has fought a war with us just a few months ago.
Opposition political parties, prominent Sikh leaders and the SGPC, instead of trying to go along with the social media narratives, must take a rationale, reasonable and an unbiased view of the situation and the decisions taken based on the situation. The “political opposition’s” job is to oppose the government for the sake of opposition but the institutions like the SGPC should rise above politics and take a dispassionate view of things, as ideally and normally they should not have any political considerations or compulsions.
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