Meet and greet

Diwali and Id are the time when most Indians meet and greet their neighbours. This age-old custom, however, has increasingly become alien to Indian foreign policy. Take, for example, Manmohan Singh. Half way through his prime ministerial term, Dr Singh has often found himself at the very ends of the earth. Most recently he was in St. Petersburg, Brasilia, Havana, London and Helsinki. He will soon head to Manila and Tokyo.

Yet, he has not visited Pakistan, or for that matter, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives. He did travel to Bangladesh, but only to attend the regional summit. His sole bilateral trip in South Asia over the last two and a half years has been to Afghanistan. That the neglect of neighbours has nothing to do with party politics is evident from the travel records of Dr Singh8217;s predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In his six years as prime minister, Vajpayee went on bilateral business to Pakistan and Bangladesh, once each to launch a bus service. His few other trips in the neigbhourhood have always been for multilateral conferences. Even the Left parties, which insisted that the PM must attend the non-aligned jamboree in Cuba, have never once demanded that Dr Singh find time for the neighbours.

During the rest of his tenure Dr Singh must abandon this unfortunate bipartisan practice of neglecting the neighbours. A failure to tend the neighbourhood sits uneasily with dreams of becoming a big player on the world stage. Dr Singh could begin by setting early dates for a visit to Pakistan. In arguing that his trip must be result-oriented, Dr Singh might have made it nearly impossible to reciprocate President Pervez Musharraf8217;s visit in April 2005. There is virtue in visiting neighbours with the sole agenda of generating good will and reaching out to the political and business establishments across the border. Dr Singh and Vajpayee have often proclaimed that India can choose her friends but not neighbours. If this were to become a guide to India8217;s regional policy, the prime minister should make visits to neighbouring countries unconditional, frequent and a routine part of India8217;s diplomatic business.