Indian Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has expressed a desire to visit Pakistan for the 4th International Punjabi Conference in Lahore, scheduled for November 27 to 29.
Speaking during a session of the Indian Punjab Assembly, Mann said Pakistani Punjabi poet Baba Najmi had invited him to attend the event. However, he questioned whether India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government would permit him to travel across the border.
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“They do not even let me go to France or Japan. How will they let me go to Pakistan?” Mann said, criticising the restrictions he says he faces on foreign travel. He added that he wanted to visit Pakistan because people on both sides share common roots and face similar problems.
Moreover, Mann highlighted the importance of people-to-people interaction between India and Pakistan. He pointed to their shared cultural heritage and the connections between Punjabi communities across the border.
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Indian Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan supported Mann’s proposal. He urged the chief minister to take fellow lawmakers to Pakistan if the authorities granted permission for the visit.
Mann also called for the reopening of the Kartarpur Corridor, which links Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab with Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan. Indian authorities suspended the corridor indefinitely on May 7, 2025, following the Pahalgam attack and rising tensions between the two countries.