Slow drift on first track

By that time India had named the new high commissioner to Pakistan but Islamabad had not indicated who would fill the slot in New Delhi. I asked him if he knew who the new Pakistani high commissioner would be. 8216;8216;Interesting you should ask me the question at this moment,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;Just last night I have cleared the file.8217;8217; He named someone totally different from the person who eventually materialised as high commissioner.

Had he misread the file? Was his choice upturned by Musharraf? Pakistan ultimately sent a very distinguished man as high commissioner. But the initial gaffe did not help create a very persuasive image of the prime minister. He was being watched intently. And he had slipped.

But the atmosphere generated by Vajpayee8217;s April 18 speech held. Terrorist acts at Tunda Akhnoor, Rajauri, Jammu, Srinagar continued but the public mood, exhausted from Gujarat and Ayodhya and Pak- related tensions, remained calm. Indeed even the recent Bombay bomb blasts, possibly unrelated to cross-border mischief, did not disturb the communal temperature.

In the background Indo-Pak contact proceeded on the 8216;8216;second track8217;8217;. The Delhi-Lahore bus service was restored, facilitating the saga of Fatima Noor, the two year old from Pakistan who underwent heart surgery in Bangalore. Few episodes in recent subcontinental history have so moved people on both sides of the border. Then a 13-year-old boy, picked up on the Indian side when he inadvertently strayed across the border, was placed on the bus to Lahore.

The leader of Pakistan8217;s Islamic grouping, MMA, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, surprised Indian leaders with his moderation and common sense. Doubts about the 8216;8216;mullah from Pakistan8217;8217; soon gave way to generous hospitality. Any argument on behalf of Musharraf that concessions on Kashmir militancy would incur the wrath of the religious right was no longer persuasive.

The visit to Islamabad and Lahore by a delegation of Indian MPs, analysts and journalists became a landmark event. The outpouring of public warmth was palpable. A country tired of democracy being ushered in and out, its public life still in the grip of the army and the feudal elite, saw in Laloo Prasad Yadav a unique symbol of Indian egalitarianism. No Indian leader in recent memory has been received with such spontaneous affection.

In the past, Indo-Pak 8216;8216;second track8217;8217; events were noticed or dismissed in newspapers without too much fuss. This was the first time that an Indian delegation exploded on a growing number of independent TV channels in Pakistan. The slow, ponderous, calibrated movement towards normalcy, warm people-to-people contacts, in the glare of competitive TV, acquired a momentum of their own. Army regimes do not like to lose control. It was inevitable that breaks be applied on that momentum, but the arrival of the business delegation indicates the resumption of calibrated normalcy.

While there is demonstrable 8212; indeed, unprecedented 8212; public support for normalcy on both sides under the overarching statesmanship of Vajpayee8217;s Srinagar statement, an official dialogue is not visible on the horizon. And a mention of official contacts willy-nilly drags the US into the context.

There remains India8217;s complaint that Pakistan8217;s terrorism directed against India is exempt from international condemnation. The Americans, on the other hand, have been dropping hints at India aggravating a proxy war with Pakistan in Afghanistan where they are having a torrid time and need Pakistan8217;s focused help. Clearly American attention is mainly on Iraq, North Korea, the Israel-Palestine track and, importantly, Afghanistan. Here Musharraf is needed and has to be protected from the machinations of the MMA and the new coordination within the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy.

The Americans are surprised that so much credence should have been given to Fazlur Rehman in India. They would like New Delhi to place some value on Prime Minister Jamali. It is not for nothing that some halo is being placed on Jamali8217;s head with him being invited to Washington on September 28-29. If public opinion in India is averse to a dialogue with Musharraf, surely Jamali can be tried out. This may even relieve pressure on Musharraf. But will the army give Jamali a free hand in reining in militants in Kashmir?