Kartarpur Corridor: A New Role for Political Marketing

Abstract

Scammell (1995) has argued that by reducing the barriers between government’s leads to reaching consent. She has also noted the perturbing reality of participation of consultants “into the inner sanctum of government” (p. 14). She counter argues that if marketing concepts are applied to politics, it will become more democratic. Political marketing can result in making political parties and candidates more knowledgeable of the needs of the public through improvement in information flow from public to politicians and vice versa. Thus, Scammell (1995) concludes that “‘political marketing’ provides a rational way for parties or candidates to behave in conditions of competitive mass democracy”. O’ Shaughnessy, (2001) has argued that due to permanent campaign, political marketing plays the pivotal role in policy making. This means that political marketing is not merely the run up campaign rather it is of strategic importance (Smith & Hirst, 2001; Lees-Marshment, 2001). We can also analyze the Kartarpur Corridor event. Indian Punjab is attached with Pakistani Punjab. Both are resilient in culture, language and to some extent customs. At the time of partition of subcontinent some important shrines of Sikh community like Nankana Sahib, Sacha Soda, Hassan Abdal and Kartarpur Sahib became the part of Pakistani Punjab. The nearest most shrine from Indian Punjab border is Kartarpur Sahib where the Gurunanak Sahib spent his life’s last eighteen years had been attached with Pakistan in 1947. It is only three km away in Pakistan from Indian international border. Sikh community used to see this place from Indian border via telescope. Every year few Sikhs who come to visit their shrines come to Pakistan via visa nut the Kartarpur Corridor is a landmark for all the Sikh community. Whole Sikh community can visit their holy shrine of Kartarpur without visa. The initial recommendation by Pakistani side allowed us to see this whole event in the perspective of political marketing. We can also affiliate this event with the international political marketing. Because this step by Pakistan is not only appreciated by the Sikh community but also marketed Pakistan as the peaceful country which as Muslim state also takes care of other religions. This message can also be attributed as Pakistan is not dangerous for doing commercial activities and Pakistani government and other state Aamir Zamir Kamboh, Yasir Kamal, Qasim Ali Nisar & Muneeb Ahmed Kamboh 234 Journal of Indian Studies institutions are also vigilant for all communities.