With veteran CPI(M) parliamentarian Somnath Chatterjee’s sandesh (a Bengali sweet) diplomacy marking the day, Parliament members and the 12-member delegation of Pakistani senators, today vowed to isolate the fundamentalist elements on both sides to carry forward the latest peace initiative. The five-course breakfast meeting at Chatterjee’s residence, initiated and described by Nirmala Deshpande (of the Indo-Pak Forum fame) as ‘‘god ordained’’, had the Pakistan delegation leader Ishaq Khan Khakwani saying that the extremist elements in both sides of the border need to be isolated for the peace initiative and good neighbourly relations to take off. Khakwani is also said to have advised the Indian side to not only ‘‘not trust’’ the fundamentalist elements but also to keep the bureaucrats on either side of the table at arms length. Describing the meeting as ‘‘a very good beginning’’, host-of-the-day Chatterjee said: ‘‘The Pakistan delegation invited Indian parliamentarians to visit their country later in the year — of course unofficially!’’ Chatterjee later said that the two sides felt there was no reason why peace, friendship and mutual cooperation between India and Pakistan could not be re-established. ‘‘But what was most needed was increased people-to-people contact which was completely cut due to the unfortunate events of the past one year,’’ he said. Adding that they had an open and informal discussion on wide-ranging issues, he said now the issue before them was how to create a conducive atmosphere in both the countries for revival of trade, cultural and sporting ties. Chatterjee regretted that it was just a beginning and won’t be an easy task as neither the BJP nor the PM agreed to give the Pakistan delegation time for an informal meeting. RJD MP Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said: ‘‘It was an extremely cordial meeting where everyone expressed hope that the commercial-cultural relations will normalise and the dialogue process would begin soon.’’ He added in a rather excited tone: ‘‘We have been invited to Pakistan!’’ Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who seemed more taken up with the ‘‘excellent quality’’ of the sandesh Chatterjee served, thankfully did not run the famous India-Pakistan confederation theory at the meeting. However, the quote of the day came from Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid-e-Azam) Shehnaz Sheikh: ‘‘Let us not be arm-twisted, but be ready for a handshake.’’ The Indian side was represented among others by former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Congress leaders Shivraj Patil and Saifuddin Soz (who lamented he could not interact enough with the Pakistani side), and CPI(M) MPs Nilotpal Basu, Rupchand Pal, Hannan Mollah and A.K. Premajam. After the looch-aloo dam-cum-kabab breakfast, they went for a meeting with Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar and former PM I.K. Gujral at the India International Centre, followed by a dinner date at former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s residence. The Pakistani delegation which has come here ‘‘on an unofficial visit’’ with SAARC visa will be touring three other cities — Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
