Elections in Amritsar will have an impact on India’s policy towards Pakistan

Every aspirant to Amritsar’s seat in Parliament is promising to reopen border trade with Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah land route. This will mean pressure to recast India-Pakistan trade policies, no matter which party or coalition forms the next Union government

Whoever wins the Lok Sabha elections in Amritsar, this border district will be the next pivot of India’s external affairs. Not just in taking foreign policy positions, but in a convergence of economic diplomacy, increased strategic presence, growing international connectivity, and most of all, a political role for experienced practitioners of diplomacy in India.

For the second successive Lok Sabha polls, Amritsar has had former Indian diplomats as candidates representing the political mainstream. This time, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who retired as India’s Ambassador to the United States less than four months ago, is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate. In 2019, Hardeep Singh Puri, who had a string of diplomatic responsibilities for almost four decades, was the BJP nominee. In both elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s nominee was a US citizen, who reclaimed his Indian nationality to join Amritsar’s politics. Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal is trying his luck this time too, even though he is already a minister in Punjab’s AAP government. Elected from Amritsar district, his portfolio is Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Affairs. Therefore, Dhaliwal’s main turf is external affairs.

All the Lok Sabha candidates from Amritsar this time have articulated differences with their parties on how India should deal with Pakistan. To suit this border district’s singular imperatives, they have tweaked the neighbourhood policy of their parties to varying degrees. Such alterations to their parties’ stated Pakistan policy are tantamount to Amritsar having its separate external border policy, and a distinct approach to India’s neighbourhood. Every aspirant to Amritsar’s seat in Parliament is promising to reopen border trade with Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah land route. This will mean pressure from Punjab’s Majha region in future to recast India-Pakistan trade policies, no matter which party or coalition forms the next Union government.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has demanded in its manifesto that the Attari and Hussainiwala borders with Pakistan be opened for trade and tourism. It is the only political party to formally demand the resumption of border trade and tourism with Pakistan. Most other parties broadly concur with the Union government’s current policy that Pakistan must eschew cross-border terrorism before any bilateral initiatives can resume.

With the SAD seeking land exchange with Pakistan to make Kartarpur Sahib a part of India, some foreign policy skirmishes between Punjab and the Union government on foreign policy can be expected after the ongoing elections. The Kartarpur corridor has emotive resonance in Punjab because it provides access to the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism. The BJP may have walked into an Akali trap by simultaneously, but separately, promising to get back Pakistan-occupied parts of Kashmir.

All the same, when the next Union government decides to launch any new Pakistan initiative, it cannot ignore an SAD proposal to convert Punjab’s entire border with Pakistan into a Special Economic Zone. It appeals to common sense in economic diplomacy. 

While the SAD’s foreign policy proposals have the inherent disadvantage that it is coming from the Opposition, this is not so with BJP’s Sandhu, given the conventional wisdom that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may soon be a third-term Prime Minister. His vision document and manifesto for Amritsar, released on May 23, has a heavy dose of external affairs for this constituency. But it is also high on pragmatism, unlike the SAD manifesto.

A privately-funded Global Visa Application Centre and a US Consulate in Amritsar, which Sandhu has promised, are within reach given his vast reservoir of diplomatic connections. Sandhu confirmed that Abu Dhabi’s Lulu Group International conglomerate has agreed to set up a logistics and food processing centre in Amritsar while a group of Punjabi NRIs in the US have raised $100 million for a Viksit Amritsar Initiative. 

Some years ago, Bengaluru and Pune emerged as alternatives to New Delhi for Indian Foreign Service officers to live in retirement. Both cities have had their complement of retired foreign secretaries. Now Amritsar is joining this list of host cities for former Indian diplomats. Navdeep Singh Suri was a trailblazer in this when he moved to Amritsar last year. When Suri was Ambassador in Abu Dhabi, he brought a group of businessmen to Punjab from the United Arab Emirates, who subsequently set up food processing plants in the state, and sourced farm products for export.

Win or lose, Sandhu will make Amritsar his permanent home. “To those who ask whether I will go away from Amritsar after the election, I want to assert that Samundri House is my home,” Sandhu recently told this author. He was referring to his ancestral home in the city.

The presence of these two former diplomats is steadily raising Amritsar’s diplomatic profile because of their global connections. After the June 4 Lok Sabha results, this profile is set to rise. 

(K P Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.