All hurdles on Kartarpur access to be cleared: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

All hurdles in the way of giving Sikh pilgrims access to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Guru Nanak Dev breathed his last and which now lies in Pakistan, would be cleared, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said here on Monday.

"There are challenges. The controversies created by Pakistan are not important. It is important that all devotees get free access to the gurdwara. You cannot think big with a small mined," Naqvi asserted at the release of "The Blessing Seeker", a coffee table book on the important Sikh shrines in India.

In the latest twist to the issue, Pakistan has proposed to levy a visa fee of $20 on the Kartarpur corridor, located across the Ravi river from the Sikh shrine of Dera Babak Nanad on the Indian side of the frontier. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has reacted sharply to this, terming the tax a "jazia" (that which is levied on non-Muslims).

Pakistan muddied the waters even further on Monday, with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi saying that former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be invited for the inauguration of the corridor on November 9. Pakistan has so far remained silent on whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be invited for the event. India has refrained from commenting on the issue.

Naqvi also said the government had done much to spread the message of Guru Nanak Dev ahead of his 550th birth anniversary on November 12.