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Journalism of Courage
The ambit of the composite dialogue India and Pakistan have undertaken to address is so very vast that affixing milestones can appear dismally complicated. Is it material progress on the gas pipeline and consolidation of economic cooperation that8217;s requisite for bilateral goodwill? Or a cordial exit from the Baglihar dispute? Or must it take swift resolution of all border disputes before a working engagement can be announced? Else, it is enough just to have our ministers on talking terms to confirm the thaw? All such queries can be routed to the border. The test is simple: any pact or proposal that in any way eases border crossings marks substantial progress. Agreement between the two countries on starting a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad passes this test. It proves that through open-minded negotiation, India and Pakistan can accommodate each other8217;s concerns with their respective notions of national interest.
There is a short-sighted tendency to separate Indo-Pak engagement into people-to-people contact and official dialogue. Events of the last decade or so have, however, shown that to sustain contact between citizens, state cooperation is critical. Moreover, this decade amply demonstrates that officialdom cannot count off its successes in isolation. It needs visible endorsement from the people. A measure of bilateral progress lies in the amount of space cleared for the people of India and Pakistan to be enabled to expect universal rules and procedures for travel to the other8217;s country. There was a long moment when the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service appeared to have been lost to seemingly irreconcilable postures. Pakistan was set firmly against India8217;s insistence on passengers carrying adequately stamped passports. New Delhi, in turn, could not countenance Islamabad8217;s case that the bus service 8212; and by extension, opportunities for travel across the Line of Control 8212; be open only to Kashmiris. This week both objections have been heeded, and on April 7 the first bus will roll across the LoC. It will, by all accounts, be followed by the opening of Sindh-Rajasthan rail link and a bus connection between Amritsar and Lahore.
