Amritsar, October 14 – The visa to visit India to the Pakistani renowned family of Rai Bular Bhattis’s has not been granted by the Indian embassy.
Rai Bular Bhatti who had donated 18500 acre land to Gurdwara Nankana Sahib in Lahore province of Pakistan was keen to visit Golden Temple Amritsar to attend the event being organized by the SGPC wherein the portrait of Rai Bular Bhatti to be installed.
Talking to FW from Lahore Pakistan, Rai Saleem Bhatti (44), an eminent lawyer at the Lahore High Court and 19th generation of Rai Bular Bhatti expressed his sadness for not granting visa to him and his family to attend the event arranged by Shriomani Gurdwara Pharbandhak Committee to set up a portrait of Rai Bular Bhatti, a 15th century Muslim big landlord of undivided Punjab and disciple of Guru Nanak Dev, at Central Sikh Museum in the Golden Temple complex on October 15.
Bhatti said that it was not the first time whereupon he was not given visa to visit to India as earlier the same incident happened thrice, as first time in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The Indian embassy people every time said apply again after some time.
“But this time our entire family saddened when visa was not granted to us, since it was such a holy occasion when SGPC was going to install the portrait of Rai Bular Bhatti in the Central Museum of Golden Temple inspite of the completion of all visa formalities and strong recommendation by SGPC but Indian Embassy was this time again not kind enough with us to enable us to visit Golden Temple”, he quipped.
“We have conveyed our inability to the SGPC for not visiting India as per the event being organized by the SGPC but requested the SGPC to go ahead and install the portrait of Rai Bular Bhatti Sahib. We will definitely come to the Golden Temple when Baba Nanak will shower His grace to the Bhatti’s family”, said he.
“Rai Bular Bhatti Sahib was a staunch follower of Baba Guru Nanak Peer. The Bhatti family had donated 18500 acre land to Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of founder Sikhism Guru Nanak”, he informed.
Being Muslim, Bhatti family has great respect for the Sikh religion and there is no doubt Baba Nanak is the Guru of Sikh community but also Peer for Muslims since during the life time of Baba Nanak’s majority of the followers were from Muslims and Baba Nanak has respect for the people from all religion’s”, said he.
Infact, the event was scheduled for October 11 on the Parkash Purb of Guru Ramdas, but it could not happen as the descendants of Rai Bular Bhatti were unable to reach for due to non-clearance of visa from the Indian authorities. Now SGPC will go ahead with the event on October 15.
