CAN heightened expectation coexist simultaneously with lowered expectations? Mr Vajpayee's momentous entry through Wagah on Saturday accompanied by media razzmatazz raises enormous hopes in certain quarters. My friend Najam Sethi, the editor of Lahore's Friday Times, says whenever he hears the word 'breakthrough' in relation to the India-Pakistan logjam, he reaches for his gun. It is usually a dark omen and precisely the reverse happens.
Notwithstanding the euphoric mood in both countries, the realists are advising caution. Do not expect too much is the chorus from battle-scarred Indo-Pak veterans. Surely, wise advice, but if the bus to Lahore has nothing more attached to it than symbolism, it is still welcome symbolism.
Relations between the distant neighbours have been frozen for too long. Mistrust, misunderstanding and frequently outright hostility rule the day. If you inject an impromptu summit into this depressing scenario, the result has to be positive. A small beginning, but a beginning nevertheless.
Therefore, it doesn't matter if a no-war or non-aggression pact is not signed, it doesn't matter if progress in nuclear matters or confidence-building measures is slight, it doesn't matter if Nawaz Sharif insists-as he must, otherwise he would be lynched-that without the'core' issue being solved there is no prospect for improved ties, it doesn't matter if Pakistan is reluctant to sell gas to Punjab or sugar to the central pool. What matters is that Nawaz Sharif and Atal Behari Vajpayee have met on subcontinental soil and the talks (hopefully) have been lifted from the diplomatic to the ministerial level.
Possibly the biggest hurdle obstructing neighbourly accord is that the dialogue, however fitful, has been largely confined to diplomats. Not surprisingly, it has got bogged down in petty victories of sentences removed or added, in tricky joint statements and in the final wordings of official communiques. One thing the two prime ministers must achieve is to rescue the dialogue from bureaucrats and hand it to ministers. Naturally, this cannot always be at the prime ministerial level, but surely Jaswant Singh and Sartaj Aziz can meet at regular intervals-and disagree on some matters at regular intervals.
Whatever else the two supreme leaders of the nations agree or disagree on, there must be consensus in one area: we must keep talking. If overnight we cannot become dosts (friends) let us at least not remain dushmans (adversaries). India and Pakistan have serious differences with many countries, but the element of enmity is missing.
So, let there be a steamer to Karachi, a Shatabdi to Islamabad, a bus to Quetta, a direct flight to Peshawar. Who knows, Mr Ashok Singhal might be persuaded one day to be a passenger on these rides.
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