Our ministers visited Kartarpur to offer prayers: Sushma on ‘googly’ remarks

Indian external affairs minister responds to FM Qureshi’s remarks on corridor opening

Two days after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi mocked India for being clean-bowled on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ‘googly’, his counterpart Sushma Swaraj explained on Saturday that Indian ministers only visited Pakistan to offer prayers in the Kartarpur gurdwara.

On Thursday, Qureshi said that the prime minister had put India in a conundrum with the move to open the Kartarpur border corridor. PM Imran had “bowled a googly at India by opening the Kartarpur border corridor,” he remarked while addressing a ceremony to mark the completion of first 100 days of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

Prime Minister Imran on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor, which connects Narowal’s Gurdwara Darbar Sahib to Dera Baba Nanak situated in India’s Gurdaspur.



Indian cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was a part of an Indian delegation, including two ministers that travelled to Pakistan for the event.

“Let me explain to you that we were not trapped by your 'googlies'. Our two Sikh Ministers went to Kartarpur Sahib to offer prayers in the Holy Gurudwara,” said the Indian external affairs minister in a tweet.

Let me explain to you that we were not trapped by your 'googlies'. Our two Sikh Ministers went to Kartarpur Sahib to offer prayers in the Holy Gurudwara. /2

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) December 1, 2018

“Mr Foreign Minister of Pakistan - Your 'googly' remarks in a dramatic manner has exposed none but YOU. This shows that you have no respect for Sikh sentiments. You only play 'googlies',” she stated in an earlier tweet.

Mr.Foreign Minister of Pakistan - Your 'googly' remarks in a dramatic manner has exposed none but YOU. This shows that you have no respect for Sikh sentiments. You only play 'googlies'. /1

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) December 1, 2018

Meanwhile, Pakistan has categorically rejected the “relentless negative propaganda campaign being waged by a section of the Indian media” against Pakistan’s initiative of opening the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims.

Expressing its dismay, the Pakistan Foreign Office reaffirmed “that the initiative to open this Corridor has been taken by the Government of Pakistan solely in deference to the longstanding wishes of our Sikh brethren, and especially in the wake of the forthcoming 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev”.

FO Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said Indian media’s coverage attributing the opening of the visa-free corridor to any other motive is purely malicious. He also thanked guests from India who attended the ceremony.