Patiala, April 13
About 50 eminent writers, intellectuals and artistes scheduled to attend the World Punjabi Conference being held in Pakistan from April 13 to 16 on the invitation of the World Punjabiat Foundation were returned from the Wagah border yesterday.
Those who have been turned back include Gurdial Singh, a Jnanpith award winner, Jigar Jalandhari, a Shiromani Urdu poet and Anup Virk, this year’s Shiromani poet. They alleged that businessmen, hoteliers, dancers and about 20 family members of the organisers had been accommodated in the delegation.
Anup Virk, Jagdeep Garcha, Man Singh Dhindsa and Dr Saroj Chaman, besides others who were selected as delegates for the conference, said they had come to know that passports of about 50 delegates were not even presented to the Pakistan Embassy for securing their visas. Instead, passports of non-delegates were presented and visas secured for them.
The delegates said it was pertinent to note that they had suffered this fate even though they had been selected by the foundation. They had submitted their passports with photographs along with Rs 1,000. They said the foundation had also published a brochure of delegates scheduled to attend the conference along with their photographs.
They said the delegates were to proceed to Pakistan on April 12 and had been instructed to reach the Wagah border by noon that day. They said many delegates from Patiala got the confirmation of their visas as late as noon on April 11 from the Punjab Arts Council, Chandigarh, from where the office of the World Punjabiat Foundation is functioning. Earlier, they had received invitations from Fakhar Zaman, convener of the conference in Pakistan.
They said some delegates, including Baljit Kaur Balli, a fiction writer, Darshan Buttar, a poet, critic Baldev Singh Dhaliwal and Dr Man Singh Dhindsa when they reached the Wagah border they were told by Dr S.S. Noor, adviser of the foundation, that their visas had not been received.
They said earlier Dr Madan Lal Hasija, Director of the State Language Department, got information that his visa had also not been received. They said even Jigar Jalandhari was informed midway that his visa had not been received.
The writers said not only delegates from Patiala but also writers from other parts of the state faced this humiliation.
Their names too were in the published list. They included Dr Baldev Singh, novelist from Moga, Surjit Judge, poet from Jalandhar, Dr Sharanjit Singh, Kana Singh, Taran Gujral from Chandigarh, Noor Mohammad Noor from Malerkotla and journalists Dalbir Singh, Daljit Singh and Surinder Singh.
The writers demanded that a high-level inquiry be held into the episode and that functioning of the World Punjabiat Foundation should also be probed. They alleged that the office-bearers of the foundation were using the facilities of the Punjab Arts Council illegally.
