A Subcontinental Chemistry Lesson

Pervez Musharraf addressed him as "PM sahab" and liberally punctuated his conversation with the respectful jis. A.B. Vajpayee called him "Musharraf sahab". It was politeness all the way till the Pakistani president bid "khuda hafiz". Both leaders did their best to build an atmosphere of informality from the very first meeting itself. So, when Farooq Abdullah interrupted a conversation between the two at the PM's lunch at Delhi's Taj Palace, Vajpayee pointed to the j&k chief minister and quipped, "Dekhiye Musharraf sahab, yeh third party intervention ho raha hai (Look, it's third party intervention)!"

And it was Musharraf who asked that the delegation be in casuals in Agra. "He asked that the summit be treated as a retreat," says an external affairs ministry official. Accordingly, a Formal Advisory was sent to all bureaucrats to pack their bandgallahs and ties and roll up their shirt sleeves. It was perhaps this informal atmosphere that encouraged Musharraf's adc Major Ali to ask for Vajpayee's autograph.

The four meetings between the two were not dominated by politics alone. According to a cabinet colleague, Vajpayee observed that the general came across as 'a strident Pakistani more than a fervent Islamic' and that he seemed very 'modern in his outlook'. Recounts the minister: "During one of the meetings, Musharraf told the PM, "Hamare maulvi family planning nahin allow karte (Our maulvis don't allow family planning)", and that this added to the country's economic burden. Vajpayee sympathised with him and said, "Aap bhagwan ke bharose kaise reh sakte hain (How do you keep your faith in god)?"

But when it came to hard talk, the PM didn't hold back. pmo sources say Vajpayee was with Musharraf when an aide passed him a slip with Maj Gen Qureshi's comments about the 'hidden hand'. The PM showed this to Musharraf and asked, "Yeh sab kya hai (What is this)? The Indian government doesn't speak in two voices." When the talks broke down, an agitated Musharraf called on him on the way to the airport. Says a minister, "He asked the PM, "Yeh kaise ho gaya (How did this happen)?" The PM told him this was no sudden development, that things had started to go wrong from the breakfast meeting with editors. When Musharraf insisted on a way out, Vajpayee told him, "Ab yeh sab jaane deejiye, is par phir baat hogi (Forget about it now. We will take it up later)."

The PM had been warned about how mercurial Indo-Pak negotiations have always been. One of his joint secretaries recalled that after talks had broken down in Shimla, Bhutto had used his farewell call to plead for some last-minute concessions and Indira Gandhi had yielded. So when Musharraf tried the same tactic, the PM was prepared.

But what really gave away Vajpayee's state of mind before the meeting was when one of his aides put up the file relating to the celebrations for Kargil Divas in front of him. Although this falls on July 26, the decision had to be taken a week before Musharraf's arrival. And the aide was not sure if Vajpayee wanted a softer approach towards Pakistan. The file was returned with the noting: "The day should be observed as it was last year."