Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday sprang a surprise with a 150-minute visit to Lahore where he greeted his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday and had talks during which they made a decision to open ways for peace for the “larger good” of the people of the two countries.
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The two diplomatic establishments are asserting that it was entirely spontaneous.
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This is not the first time an Indian Prime Minister has extended a hand of friendship towards Pakistan, what is different is the style: a sudden stopover in Lahore on the way back from Kabul.
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“Am personally touched by Nawaz Sharif Sahab ‘s gesture of welcoming me at Lahore airport and coming to the airport when I left”.
Since independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, the Himalayan region that both claim in its entirety.
The Congress attacked Mr Modi for his “unscheduled” visit to Pakistan and alleged it was not for promoting India’s national interest or to take forward the roadmap to engage with it on tackling terror but to promote private business interests. Change in the Indian stance were noticed when Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj attended a conference in Pakistan recently and announced the resumption of dialogue.
What does this visit mean for Indian-Pakistani relations? Mr Modi and Mr Sharif have met at a number of worldwide venues in the last eighteen months and attempted to restart the old cycle of rounds of talks and dialogues.
By the time he landed in Pakistan later in the afternoon, India’s array of boisterous news television stations were buzzing with instant reactions Modi’s surprise move (producers quickly thought up Twitter hastags to drive the coverage, with one channel pushing #ModiPakPitstop, while another went with #Birthdaydiplomacy).
Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry, who attended the meeting, said the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere and both sides agreed to build trust and increase cooperation.
The Indian leader, who sipped Kashmiri tea while meeting Sharif, also met the Pakistani leader’s mother.
It was widely expected that Vajpayee’s successor, Manmohan Singh, would visit Pakistan, especially since he was born in a village in Punjab province, but the 2008 Mumbai attacks derailed the bilateral dialogue and ruled out such a trip.
Modi had been traveling in Afghanistan – a country and visit that is a source of tension between India and Pakistan – and then stopped in Lahore on his way back to New Dehli. PM Sharif received a call from PM Modi, who wished Sharif a happy birthday and expressed a desire to stop in Pakistan to meet with him.
Shortly thereafter, Modi was seen off by Sharif at the airport.
In a series of tweets from his official handle, Saeed said, “Personal friendship aside, Modi is a murderer and brutal killer of Muslims, and occupier of Kashmir”, adding that he shouldn’t have been welcomed.
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Without referring directly to Pakistan, Mr Modi said that some had seen “sinister designs in our presence” in Afghanistan. “Like leaders of other nations in the world like the EU, Asean and even countries in our neighbourhood, leaders of India and Pakistan too needed to inject informality in their relations”, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said.
