Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister of Pakistan, is touching upon subjects which leaders in his country and India intentionally avoid. His suggestion to Pakistan to unilaterally lift restrictions on travels by Indians is bold and timely. Tension between the two countries is far less than before and there is a pronounced desire to come closer to each other.
The Pakistan Muslim League which Sharif heads is a concomitant with extremist elements. Some have strong anti-India views. For him to ignore their bias is courageous. Yet, the hardheaded politician as he is, his ears are plugged to the ground. He is convinced that an average Pakistani wants to befriend India. He has tested this sentiment when, a few years ago, he swept the polls against the late Benazir Bhutto on the plank that the vote for him was a vote for friendship with India.
She had then taken an opposite stand. Sharif has said that Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), also supports his proposal. Zardari or any PPP minister should come out with some statement to confirm their support. It is, however, strange that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has made no statement to express his views on how to improve relations with India.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose visit to Pakistan is awaited anxiously by Islamabad, said a few weeks ago that he was ready to travel to the other side provided there was something important to sign. The abolition of visa can be worth a visit. While in the wilderness Bhutto had come to the conclusion that India and Pakistan should sink their differences - a realisation that came to her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto towards the end of his life. He would even say that he was sick of going to the chanceries of the world. Had Bhutto been alive she would have taken the initiative to normalise relations with India.
Infiltration
New Delhi's fear was initially on the infiltration in Kashmir. But it has now spread to other parts of India, more recently because of disclosures following raids on the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
New Delhi also claims to have proof that Dawood Ebrahim, an underground don said to be living in Karachi, has planned and executed the bomb blasts at Mumbai in 1993. Some recent incidents of violence have also been linked to his men.
Since the "hand of Pakistan" is seen in all these incidents, India would be chary in abolishing visa. Its fear is that terrorists will come through the border, although it is naïve to believe that they use normal channels to enter.
True, during the interrogation of the SIMI men and those of Ebrahim, the Inter-Service Intelligence link was alleged. But there is no going away from the fact that the extremists among Muslims in India have emerged after the mass killings of Muslims in Gujarat.
Another hindrance in the way of normalisation may be the BJP which once had the credit of leading its prime minister's bus to Lahore. The party has re-adopted its old anti-Pakistan posture and the ideology of Hindutva. Friendship with Pakistan does not fit into its anti-Muslim approach. The party believes that its anti-Pakistan stance will go down well with the Hindu voter in the Lok Sabha elections, due in less than a year.
Contacts
I see the merit in Sharif's proposal if the people-to-people contact is in thousands. Only then will the cobwebs of misinformation and the age-old hostility go. This cannot be done so long as the two countries pledge not to use violence to settle their disputes.
Zardari's suggestion to keep Kashmir aside for the time being is worth pursuing. We have made no progress in the way we have gone about in the past 60 years. Had there been at least free trade between the two countries, there would have been economic inter-dependence, lessening the space for bickering. Trade ultimately develops into economic ties. The feeling of inter-dependence comes into play. There is give and take. Once this feeling gets hold of the people, they go beyond disputes. At least, the differences are understood in the spirit of accommodation, not antagonism.
One regrettable thing has been that contacts have generally been at the level of the elite where prejudice has political dimensions. Once business and contact come down to the level of ordinary traders and ordinary people the spirit of togetherness develops. Were this to happen, the picture which some politicians, bureaucrats and journalists have painted about each other's country would change. People would come to know each other as they were, not as they are depicted, to fit into the policies the two countries pursue.
Ultimately the abolition of visa, however desirable, may be of little use if the young minds continue to be polluted. India at least is not guilty of rewriting history. Unfortunately, history in Pakistan begins with the advent of Islam in the subcontinent. What about Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa or Taxila? The subcontinent has a long history. The birth of two and three countries does not change it. Our separate identities are important. But they cannot be at the expense of the history and traditions which we have shared for hundreds of years. The abolition of visa alone cannot bring it about.
Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP.
