With the Indian cricket team likely to visit Pakistan in the next few months, the sports diplomacy between the two countries is likely to continue.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had formally invited the prime minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi when he visited Mohali to watch the India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup semi-final on March 30.
However, a summit is not on the agenda of the government. Incidentally, during his seven-year tenure, the prime minister has never visited Pakistan for a bilateral meeting. But he has met Pakistan’s top leaders many times at neutral venues.
“The prime minister can go to Pakistan to watch a cricket match when India plays there,” a veteran Congress leader, in the loop of the government’s diplomatic initiatives, told Business Standard.
A large section of the external affairs ministry, too, feels that extending the Mohali spirit by visiting the stadium during an India-Pakistan cricket match “will be a nice gesture”.
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The Pakistan Cricket Board has indicated it will work out the tour plan some time in June, after consulting its government. Sources in the Indian government say even if the team goes to Pakistan, it’s likely to be for a short tour.
Top sources in the party suggest the prime minister is “genuinely passionate” in his dream of a permanent peace with Pakistan and the party now fully backs his initiatives.
Sources also claimed that before inviting Gilani for the Mohali match, the prime minister didn’t consult anyone in the external affairs ministry but spoke to the party brass, which promptly backed him.
At the same time, the party feels that a summit meeting is not required at this moment as “it would not yield any result”.
Congress leaders point out that Indira Gandhi didn’t visit Pakistan during her entire tenure. Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh’s boss and prime minister from 1991 to 1996, also didn’t attend any summit in Pakistan.
While Islamabad has invited the Congress president as well, party sources suggest she is unlikely to go. In 2004, Gandhi had received a similar invitation, but didn’t go. Her children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra, however, cheered for the country in Karachi.