The train must run

It is ironic in the extreme. This time last year, the final details of the first Delhi-Lahore bus service were being worked out. Today, th...

It is ironic in the extreme. This time last year, the final details of the first Delhi-Lahore bus service were being worked out. Today, the clamour to discontinue the Samjhauta Express, the only train service linking India and Pakistan, seems to be reaching a crescendo. Truly, the distance between Delhi and Islamabad seems to be growing by the day, helped immeasurably by that brutish military encounter on Kargil8217;s heights and a military coup in Pakistan which saw the disintegration of a fledgling democratic order in that country. Last week saw interests as varied as the Youth Congress, the Punjab government and the Union Home Ministry demanding that the Samjhauta Express be halted in its tracks.

While it may seem the 8220;patriotic8221; thing to do, at a time when sabre-rattling on both sides of the border is the order of the day, it certainly will not be the wisest. The Samjhauta Express keeps alive the tentative hope that relations between the two countries may one day achieve a semblance of normality. It doesthis by providing an affordable means of transportation to two peoples united and divided by a common history. While unscrupulous elements have exploited this rail service for their own ends, there is just no denying that thousands of ordinary people have travelled on this train to visit loved ones or ply a trade. This is not, of course, to underplay the seriousness of the various threats that such a rail service poses.

The latest scandal to surface 8212; the systematic smuggling of fake currency 8212; along with earlier incidents when contraband goods, drugs and arms were brought in, point to the dangers of laxity. Intelligence Bureau reports that porters and customs officials could be in cahoots with Pakistani smugglers is certainly cause for alarm. But while this calls for the tightening up of vigilance and exemplary punishment to those found guilty, it does not by any means demand the immediate suspension of the train service.

It may be useful to recall that the Delhi-Lahore bus service too had got thesceptics and cynics all worked up. Many were the dire scenarios predicted. If it was not for the fact that politicians at the highest level in both countries persisted with the idea of keeping the bus on the road, it would have been punctured a long time ago. Even amidst the Kargil hostilities, the bus continued to run and today its tri-weekly run has become institutionalised.

The Ministry of External Affairs has quite rightly expressed its strong reservations to the cancellation call. Those who have facilitated India-Pakistan parleys know the tremendous effort that is required to firm up any measure that could bring the two countries together. They are naturally perturbed at the prospect of this long and painstaking process being so casually undermined on the altar of political expediency. As one official put it, withdrawing the Samjhauta Express could send the wrong signals 8212; not just to Pakistan but to the world 8212; and that as long as India has a High Commission in Islamabad, the train must run.