Indian Punjab’s culture minister wants better ties
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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-3-2004_pg7_8
LAHORE: The Indian Punjab culture minister met with his Pakistani Punjab
counterpart at the Lahore Arts Council on Thursday and proposed a joint working
group to establish better contacts between the people of the two provinces.
Indian Punjab Culture and Tourism Minister Ashwani Kumar Sekhri (pictured) was
accompanied by his cabinet colleagues Dr Raj Kumar and Mahinder Singh in his
meeting with Shaukat Ali Bhatti.
The three ministers are in Lahore to watch the India-Pakistan cricket match and
the Zanani theatre festival. Mr Sekhri also informally proposed an exchange of
university and college students and artists to promote brotherly relations and
cultural bonds.
“We enjoy the same heritage, civilisation, culture and genes and we need to
promote these commonalities,” Mr Sekhri said. “Relations between both
countries are developing. The meeting of our prime minister with your president
indicate better relations. We need to promote at least cultural relations
us,” he said.
He also offered to help Pakistani students wanting to study in East Punjab and
a sharing of agriculture research between the two provinces, which have
farming-based economies.
Mr Sekhri said he had visited Mr Bhatti for personal reasons. “I’m really
happy to see a culture minister who is young like me. We could and should do
something that could benefit our coming generations,” he said.
Mr Sekhri said the East Punjab chief minister had very much enjoyed his visit
to Pakistani Punjab. “He is also quite pleased with the hospitality his
counterpart in Pakistan showed him,” Mr Sekhri said.
Mr Bhatti welcomed Mr Sekhri’s visit and said he would be visiting India
within a month. He also supported the idea of people-to-people contact.
Ajoka’s Madeeha Gauhar and her writer husband Shahid Nadeem suggested a
delegation of senior citizens who had relations in each other’s Punjab or
were born or brought up there. —Anjum Gill