Unlike his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not board a bus to travel across to Pakistan from Amritsar tomorrow morning. Singh will merely flag off the first bus to Nankana Sahib.The inauguration of a new cross-border link between two of the holiest shrines for the Sikhs, however, offers Singh an occasion to reflect upon the prospects for greater cooperation between the two Punjabs as well as inject fresh life into the stalled peace process between India and Pakistan. Having successfully concluded a historic nuclear agreement with the US and getting it endorsed by most of the major powers, Singh now needs to confidently focus on a transformation of India’s regional relationships.New Delhi is not unaware of the nervousness in Pakistan about India’s successful great power diplomacy which has allowed it to break out of its long-standing nuclear isolation.President George W Bush’s visit to the sub-continent earlier this month, saw the burial of the long-standing American “tilt” towards Pakistan on Kashmir. At this very moment of triumph for Indian diplomacy, a serious attempt to boost relations with Pakistan presents itself at the top of the agenda. In the last few months, a pall of gloom had begun to envelope the Indo-Pak peace process. Islamabad is concerned that progress on confidence-building measures has begun to outpace the discussions on what it sees as the “core” issue between India and Pakistan—Jammu and Kashmir.No other region has benefited more from the Indo-Pak CBMs than Punjab. The Punjabis, who were the biggest victims of Partition have gained new political space for greater contact and communication for the first time in decades. The bus service between Amritsar and Nankana Sahib follows the launch of a transport link between Amritsar and Lahore some months ago. But the huge potential for wide-ranging economic cooperation bet ween the two Punjabs remains untapped despite the growing enthusiasm between the two political establishments in Chandigarh and Lahore.Further progress, however, will depend on lending greater traction to the Indo-Pak peace process.While two rounds of the composite dialogue have been completed and a third round is underway, there has been no big breakthrough.Despite the fact that diplomatic solutions to such issues as Siachen and Sir Creek have been at hand for a while, political will in both capitals has been missing. On Kashmir, there is no evidence in public sphere to suggest a serious conversation between the two sides is taking place.Last April in Delhi, the Prime Minister and Musharraf had a substantive discussion on Kashmir. Three broad markers came out of that meeting. India is against changing borders in Kashmir. Pakistan cannot accept the present borders in J&K as permanent. Singh and Musharraf agreed that borders should not matter.Despite the inherent tension between these three principles, together they provide a framework to consider innovative ideas on a final settlement to the Kashmir question. But diplomatic impatience in Islamabad and the enduring old think in New Delhi have cast a shadow over Indo-Pak engagement on Kashmir.Major terrorist events in India in the last few months have also tended to rob the peace process of the momentum it had acquired last April. Singh’s meetings with Musharraf last September in New York and with prime minister Shaukat Aziz last November in Dhaka did not help overcome the sense of impasse in the peace process.A broad vision of Indo-Pak relations and reassurances from Singh on India’s commitment to engage purposefully on Kashmir could now do the trick for New Delhi and Islamabad.
