Tracks to diplomacy

The conversation is knowledgeable, even insightful. For a dialogue with India, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz would make an interlocutor more trusted by the establishment. Might he be made foreign minister? Who8217;d then shift to finance? Hafiz Shaikh, minister for privatisation? Both have World Bank backgrounds. President Musharraf and Foreign Secretary Khokar may concur that Foreign Minister Kasuri, veteran of the second track, may be too 8220;soft8221; for official talks. Do we again have to pull Niaz Naik out of the mothballs?

Then comes the refrain, universal in Pakistan: but nothing can move an inch unless something is done about Kashmir. One may be extrapolating too much from an evening but this narration is simply to provide a flavour of the well-heeled Pakistani establishment having direct links with the army, politicians and western diplomatic corps. This establishment is so content with what it has that any inflection that threatens the status quo is likely to be resisted. Relations with India fall into this category.

Now visualise Laloo Prasad Yadav8217;s triumphant visit to Pakistan along with 59 other MPs, experts and journalists invited by the South Asian Free Media Association against the backdrop of the all powerful establishment.

So far the second track was confined to brief notices in newspapers. In today8217;s Pakistan, the PTV monopoly has been broken by independent networks like GEO and ARY. All these networks found Laloo and therefore the entire second track group so compelling a subject to boost viewership, that he was continuously mobbed from the moment he crossed Wagah.

Agreed the SAFMA conference had official sanction in Pakistan, acquiescence in India, but the scale on which the expedition burst upon Pakistan8217;s consciousness, the mass enthusiasm it generated, is exactly the sort of stuff entrenched establishments are uncomfortable with. Second track in the age of newspapers is manageable; in the midst of an electronic media explosion it is not. Military establishments hate to lose control.

Laloo may strike the urban elite as a comical figure, a rustic version of Laxman8217;s common man, Charlie Chaplin and Chanakya, all rolled into one. But to Pakistani viewers he represented the miracle of an uninterrupted democracy, the little man who once looked after cows and buffaloes and has now been in power in India8217;s second most populous state for nearly 14 years. His very persona mocks at the archaic, feudal structure of Pakistani democracy. By that very token the public, the one that will boost TV ratings, romanticises him as the symbol of the essential egalitarianism which has bypassed Pakistan.

On his return from Pakistan Laloo, when was asked what his perceptions of Pakistan were before he set out, said he was advised by his children to 8220;be careful, very cautious8221; since he was going to an enemy country. 8220;But the moment I crossed the Wagah border the warmth and the affection of the people instantly removed all my fears,8221; he said.

An overwhelming majority of the MPs in the delegation were in Pakistan for the first time. They all admitted that the 8220;demon8221; about Pakistan lodged in their minds had been removed. Balbir Punj of the BJP said: 8220;The visit has been an eye opener.8221; Most had expected women in veils. They were astonished to find them more aggressive peaceniks than men at the conference.

Travel restrictions and lack of contact between people have been exploited by political interests on both sides. Demonisation of each other is one result. Must the Kashmir issue be solved before the two sides begin removing the 8220;demons8221; of the mind? Do those who pose 8220;Kashmir first8221; see the absurdity of their proposition? Aren8217;t they interested in removing 8220;demons8221;?

Thirty-two Indian parliamentarians returned cleansed of all the cobwebs in their mind. Many more would like to visit Pakistan. Being part of SAARC, they do not even require visas. But I hear they would like more SAFMA-like exchanges. It is easy for Kuldip Nayar to take advantage of the SAARC facility and go across to meet his friends in Lahore. But how does an MP from Tamil Nadu or Karnataka find his way around Pakistan? In other words the SAARC facility is notional unless more and more SAFMA-like groups come forward as facilitators. Will the government in Islamabad be as helpful in the future? This is where I foresee a difficulty. Even as we were basking in Pakistani hospitality, the establishment had banned Indian TV channels!

8220;In a global village you cannot keep information from each other,8221; Laloo told an interviewer. 8220;Pakistanis had seen me before I came to their country.8221; How does one explain this banning of Indian channels? Is the army establishment not yet prepared to set at rest the 8220;demons8221; of the mind? Does the success of Indian democracy and secularism threaten a mindset reared on the two nation theory? Remember, India accepts Pakistan; it cannot abandon its 150 million Muslims by accepting the two-nation theory.

Official dialogue at any level and summit meetings can be occasions for grandstanding. But normalisation can dawn only when 8220;demons8221; of the mind are removed by more people-to-people contacts alongside a wide spectrum dialogue on all issues, including Kashmir, 8220;uninterrupted and uninterruptible8221;, insulated from the fluctuations of domestic politics.

The internal constituency for peace is growing exponentially in Pakistan as became clear from the SAFMA conference. What then is the logic of keeping the people from Indian TV? Is Musharraf placing all his bets on a solitary factor, that the Americans are overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan. For this reason they will not press him for now on the Indo-Pak track?

I believe time is running out for the old mindset. Even pillars of the establishment like my host in Gulberg, still averse to the 8220;idea of India8221;, has switched from PTV to GEO TV.