The Hindu : Rose petals, warm hugs greet MPs team in Pak.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 10, 2003

International

International - India & World

Rose petals, warm hugs greet MPs team in Pak.

By K.K. Katyal

The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, Laloo Prasad Yadav with a Pakistani national at the Wagah border post on Saturday. — AP

LAHORE AUG. 9. The normally austere Wagah border sprang to life when a convoy of Indian parliamentarians, journalists and experts entered Pakistan this afternoon. A big group of people that had gathered at Bab-e-Azadi (Gateway to Freedom) across no man's land expressed itself in animated slogan shouting and the showering of rose petals. Triple hugs, exchange of greetings and excited talk marked the mini-spectacle.

It is no easy job to cross the India-Pakistan land border, with immigration formalities and passport checks causing delays and irritation. The humid atmosphere adds to the problem. Then comes a sudden whiff of breeze and the grumbling over the chaotic scene is forgotten.

The 60-strong Indian group arrived in Pakistan to take part in an unusual track-II exercise — the Conference on Understanding, Confidence-Building and Conflict Resolution under the auspices of South Asia Free Media Association. The MPs belonging to practically all parties outnumber the others. Their interaction with their counterparts in Pakistan will be the high point of the visit. Another highlight will be their meeting with the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, Laloo Prasad Yadav, is a star attraction on both sides of the border. In the VIP room on the Pakistani side, he addressed an impromptu press conference to extol the virtues of Indo-Pakistan amity and friendship. TV cameramen had a field day.

There is nothing official about this welcome — no official bigwigs, no booming of guns, no guard of honour but it is more than made up by the abundant warmth and cordiality of those present at the border. Among them are familiar figures who have been working for Indo-Pakistan amity. The placards carried by the crowd have equally heart-warming slogans. A sample: Ghar say ghar tak faasla kyon? (Why this distance between home and home?)

The terrain on the two sides of the border — from Amritsar to Attari and on the Pakistan side from Wagah to Lahore — is strikingly similar. The same vast expanse of green fields, small habitations, water channels. One hardly gets the impression of having entered a foreign land.

It is natural for the mind to turn back to the scene over four years ago — on February 20, 1999, to be precise. That was the day when Atal Behari Vajpayee entered Pakistan by the land route — the first Indian Prime Minister to undertake such a journey.

A series of pictures flit through — Mr. Vajpayee alighting from a golden coloured bus, a light hug by his counterpart of the day, Nawaz Sharif, the booming of guns, the formal salute — and the abundance of emotions. And that talk about a conspicuous absentee — the then Chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He, we were told then, did not want to get mixed up with the civilian elite in that public welcome. He preferred to greet Mr. Vajpayee — with a salute — at the Governor's House in Lahore where the visiting dignitary was taken by helicopter.

That was the inaugural run of the Delhi-Lahore bus service, which, as is known, was suspended subsequently in the wake of developments after the December 13 attack on Parliament and was resumed recently.

Otherwise, the land route remained unused, except by diplomats, foreign and Indian, and Members of Parliament from the two countries under a SAARC protocol.

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