The message from Mohali is that the people of India and Pakistan want to live in peace and amity and that the two prime ministers have committed their governments to work in that direction,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. If this is the message, then it is time Dr Singh fixed a date for his first visit – as prime minister – to Islamabad. Dr Singh’s Mohali initiative – the invitation to Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to watch the India-Pakistan World Cup cricket semi-final – was not as whimsical as some thought it to be given the suddenness of the announcement and the lack of visible planning for the bilateral dialogue between the two prime ministers. It is clear that Dr Singh has been long contemplating a resumption of the purposeful dialogue that he had carried out with former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf between 2004 and 2007. While the terror attack in Mumbai in November 2008 was the most important factor preventing the resumption of that dialogue, the internal confusion within Pakistan over who calls the shots in Islamabad was also a factor. Dr Singh chose to work with Mr Gilani when the two met in Thimpu on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in April 2010. Yet, bureaucracies on both sides were slow to move forward and Dr Singh’s pre-occupations with a series of problems at home had also diverted his attention. The Mohali match offered a good context and pretext to resume the dialogue with Mr Gilani and it is just as well that Islamabad empowered Mr Gilani to go ahead.
The Mohali dialogue, officially termed as “wide-ranging”, was best described as a “conversation” rather than “talks”. How wide-ranging the conversation was can be gleaned from the upbeat summing-up that the two interlocutors offered. The successful meeting between the home secretaries of both governments, coming in the wake of growing concerns in both countries about home-grown terrorism, is to be followed by similar meetings between the defence and commerce secretaries. These define the parameters of engagement. Clearly, India and Pakistan are back to business as far as the “composite dialogue” on “all outstanding issues” is concerned. If both prime ministers can keep their eye on the long-term goal and ensure that their respective teams are on board, there is new hope for a genuine resumption of what was clearly a historic dialogue between Dr Singh and Mr Musharraf. By using a cricket match to resume an official dialogue, the two prime ministers have underscored the importance of people-to-people relations between neighbours for government-to-government relations. New business-to-business interactions can cement the process. The time has come for Dr Singh to visit Pakistan. The new time table of official interactions should enable a visit sooner rather than later. There are many agreements in the pipeline, including some on key issues, that can be taken forward, even as new ones take shape. Dr Singh has waited for seven long years to return to the land of his birth as prime minister. Having taken a step forward in that direction, he must now stand firm, offer leadership at home and in the sub-continent, and win the confidence of the Indian people to “make a road by walking”, as he once put it.
