T
uesday, April 18, will mark a political milestone in Indo-Pak relations. You remember the significance of this date, don't you? It was on April 18, 2005, that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf signed in New Delhi a joint statement with that controversial pledge of not allowing "terrorism to impede the peace process". Over these 12 months, the peace process has survived despite the challenges of terrorism, despite the ingrained cynicism of those critics who doubted the very sustainability of building bridges with Pakistan. It will receive a big fillip in the coming months when India and Pakistan announce a modality to disengage militarily from the icy wastes of Siachen.
But the confidence of today was absent the same time last year. When Musharraf expressed his desire to watch an India-Pakistan cricket match, alarm bells began to ring. India policymakers were still reeling under the Agra jinx. They were quick to recall the public relations triumph of Musharraf. Could India afford another Musharraf victory? The external affairs ministry expressed its doubts, as did the media. They branded Musharraf as a political hustler who plays games, who just can't be trusted. Couldn't the man who ran circles around Vajpayee make mincemeat of Manmohan Singh, popularly perceived to be a political novice? Or so they thought.
At a meeting on March 9, Manmohan broke into a wry smile and said, "If the prime minister of India cannot meet the president of Pakistan in Delhi, where else is he supposed to meet him?" Next morning, he went to Parliament and publicly issued an invitation to Musharraf. Pakistan won the April 17 match in Delhi, but the Indo-Pak relationship did receive a new catalyst. "April 18, 2005," says a source, "represents a whole new beginning with no botched up ending in sight."
Reflect over what the peace process has survived: It has survived the killings of scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; it has survived the shockwaves of the blasts on Diwali-eve in Delhi; it has overcome the horror of the blasts in the Sankat Mochan temple of Varanasi. Sources say there were some particularly nasty moments last September in New York, when Musharraf brought back Kashmir to the United Nations, and asked for demilitarisation of the Valley. His demand resulted in a near-frosty dinner meeting between Manmohan and Musharraf.
But the thaw in the relationship happened on October 4, 2005. On this day, the India-Pakistan joint commission met after a gap of 16 years. Foreign ministers K. Natwar Singh and Khurshid M. Kasuri discussed the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including visa liberalisation. In the subsequent months, Kashmiri politicians on either side started to crisscross the LoC, and the prime minister took to meeting Kashmiri leaders of various political hues.
All these are no mean achievements, particularly because the history of Indo-Pak ties is littered with fallen milestones. For instance, it took four years to properly re-establish relations with Pakistan after the Simla Agreement was signed in 1972. Again, the Khokrapar-Munabao link was originally envisaged to happen way back in 1974, not 32 years later, in 2006. In fact, 1999 could have hailed as a good year for the relationship because of Vajpayee's bus trip to Lahore. But then Kargil happened. And then came the Agra fiasco of 2001.