Send dumbae: Badal to Shahbaz

ATTARI: There was much bonhomie, both in words and actions, as Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal asked his Pakistan Punjab’s counterpart Shahbaz Sharif to send him dumbae (Afghan sheep) which Shahbaz had gifted Badal about 13 years ago when he had visited Pakistan along with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“I need Afghan sheep and cows of the Sahiwal breed,” said Badal during the inauguration of India’s first integrated check post (ICP) at Attari.
Turning nostalgic in his speech, Badal told Sharif and other Pakistani dignitaries of his college days spent in Lahore. “Open the gates, there is no danger,” he said while looking at Union home minister P Chidambaram. “The one who has not seen Lahore was not born at all,” he added.
In a reciprocal gesture, Sharif said, “Badal I forgot to bring chicken for you from Lahore.”
Going down the memory lane, they said thousands of people had lost their lives during the partition but time had come when they had to forget their miseries and move forward for a prosperous future.
Sharif offered kabbadi diplomacy to normalize relations between two nations.
“We will invite you play ‘kushti’ at Lahore, Multan, Faislabad. We are neighbors for ever, no one can change geography. Only the god can but that will not happen. We should live as good neighbors and not as unruly ones,” he said.
Recalling his meeting with Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, Sharif said, “Though Pakistan side has not created matching infrastructure at their side of ICP, a large contingent of Pakistan businessmen have arrived at Attari.’’
Exhorting on shedding differences and hatred, Union commerce minister Anand Sharma said that it would be most unfortunate if both countries couldn’t leave it.