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Updated: Jan 13, 2019 14:51 IST

Releasing a commemorative coin to mark the birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of Kartarpur corridor during his speech on Sunday.

He said that the followers of Guru Nanak won’t have to look through a telescope for a darshan of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib.

“Through Kartarpur corridor, Sikh devotees will be able to make visa-free pilgrimage to Darbar Sahib in Narowal, Pakistan, on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev,” he said.

At the same time he said that the Kartarpur corridor was an atonement for the mistake made in August 1947 at the time of Partition.

“The gurdwara was just a few kilometres away but it was not brought in India. Building the Kartarpur corridor is an attempt to recompense that loss. It is an act of repentance for the mistake that happened in August 1947,” he said.

Releasing the Rs 350 commemorative coin in honour of Guru Gobind Singh, the PM said that the verses of the Guru were an “inspiration and the simple expression of our lives.”

“Just like him (Guru Gobind Singh, his poetry is also multi-faceted and covers many difference subjects,” the PM said.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was also present at the release of the commemorative coin on Sunday.

Modi also said that the BJP government would ensure that justice was provided to “all sisters and mothers” who were victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Harsimrat Kaur Badal had attended the foundation stone laying ceremony of the corridor in Kartarpur.

The event had also raised a controversy when photographs of Navjot Singh Sidhu posing with Khalistani leader Gopal Singh Chawla had gone viral.

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh had refused to attend the ceremony in Punjab citing terrorist attacks by Pakistan-backed militants in India.