Price of elusive peace with Pakistan

There was a chill in the air but bright sunshine made it seem more like a nip pleasantly bearable We were standing in an open field in Pakistan a short distance from the bordercrossing at Wagah waiting for the bus to arrive The road from Wagah separated us from the field across where colourful tents had been erected buntings gaily fluttering in the air for the reception that awaited Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee The show had been carefully choreographed mdash the crowd largely the elite of Lahore the men in starched white shalwarkameez and the women clad in shimmering shades of pink organdy the military band which was playing racy Bollywood hits and the rose petals strewn on the road to give it the appearance of a red carpet made for a heady mix But someone had forgotten to sprinkle the dry winter fields with water The helicopter carrying Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif kicked up a dust storm as it landed Tavleen Singh peering through the whirling dust wondered if the bus was running late Lo and behold it trundled in a few minutes later a grinning Dev Anand leaning out of one of the windows and waving at the crowd which had by then begun to surge forwardu00a0Vajpayee and Sharief hugged each other the band which for some inexplicable reason was playing ldquoMumbai se aya mera dosthelliprdquo switched over to a robust rendition of ldquoYeh dosti hum naheen todengeyhelliprdquo and with that grand pathbreaking gesture of friendship SadaeSarhad the DelhiLahore bus service was launched on February 19 1999 As we made our way across the road to the reception area a Pakistani friend quipped ldquoHow long before the tune turns to Dost dost na rahardquo His words proved to be propheticu00a0Missing in the crowd of senior officials was a certain General Pervez Musharraf He was busy monitoring the deployment of Pakistani troops on the heights of Kargil meticulously executing his plan to strike when the Indian Army least expected it By May as Musharraf records in his memoir In the Line of Fire he was all set to embark upon his audacious plan to cut off supplies to Leh By the time the Pakistani intruders were discovered they were already deep within our side of the Line of Control The subsequent battle to regain territory and evict the Pakistani soldiers was vicious the soaring hopes generated by Vajpayeersquos Lahore bus yatra in the spring of 1999 turned into ashes in the summer of that year u00a0The subsequent events are worth recalling not the least because public memory is notoriously short Musharraf deposed Sharif Indian Airlines flight IC814 was hijacked an attempt was made to bomb Red Fort Parliament House suffered an assault by Pakistani terrorists and Raghunath mandir in Jammu and Akshardham in Gandhinagar were attackedu00a0 In between Musharraf swaggered into Agra and left in a huff after failing to have his way These were some of the notable markersu00a0Musharraf was ousted by the Pakistan Peoplersquos Party when longdelayed elections were held Pakistan persisted with its war of thousand cuts commuter trains were bombed in Mumbai cities were bombed with ruthless precision and then 2611 happened All the while Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh kept on talking peace Singh walked the proverbial extra mile at Sharm elSheikh and made India look like a gutless nation too enfeebled to uphold its dignity But the lsquopeacersquo which Singh craved as his legacy remained elusive That has neither deterred him nor dampened his spirit An orchestrated Easter Sunday visit by President Asif Ali Zardari has set in motion all over again Singhrsquos pursuit of peace at any cost New Delhi is abuzz with stories of how he is determined to do something far more grand and spectacular than his predecessorrsquos bus journey u00a0Will Singh revive the deal he had brokered with Musharraf on Jammu amp Kashmir when he visits Pakistan most probably in the autumn of this year Will he carry Sir Creek as a gift Or will it be a unilateral offer to lsquodemilitarisersquo Siachen and let the Pakistani Army occupy the strategic glacier to cheers in Beijing If statements emanating from Pakistan are any indication it is likely to be the third Sadly while the Pakistanis and we can be sure the Americans appear to be aware of whatrsquos cooking Indians remain in the dark Like the longsuffering wife of a philandering man we shall be the last to learn if our national interest is once again sacrificed at the altar of a false god called Peace With Pakistan mdash The writer is a journalist political analyst and activist