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Vajpayee promises to ease visa restrictions on Pakistanis

Sharat Pradhan in Lahore

Travel between India and Pakistan will soon become easier, and not just because of the new Delhi-Lahore bus service.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced here today that his government would shortly do away with the stringent visa rules to facilitate easier travel between the two countries.

Delivering an extempore speech in passionate and eloquent Hindi at the grand reception accorded him at the Governor's House, Vajpayee said, "I am pained to find that relatives living on either side of the border are unable to meet because of cumbersome procedures. I am also told that fishermen who might accidentally venture into the territorial waters of either country have to often face the wrath of the police.

To loud applause, he said: "All this must stop; I'll see to it that there is an end to this type of harassment."

Referring to the strict regulations that have been observed so far in opening the gates at the Wagah border check-post, the prime minister said, "It is high time we start living like friends and are not guided solely by the clock in opening and closing the gates."

In his emotionally charged address, Vajpayee observed, "We have had enough of enmity, let us now live in amity and friendship. Friendship knows no end, while enmity does bring one to a stage where one gets fed up."

He spoke at length about the need to build up mutual faith and hoped that since a "remarkable beginning" has been made, the road ahead will also be smooth and "we will start living like good neighbours".

He was candid enough to disclose how he was being dissuaded from visiting the Minar-e-Pakistan, the tower erected to commemorate Pakistan's birth in 1947, earlier this morning, on the plea that the gesture would put the Indian prime minister's stamp on the very creation of Pakistan.

But, to prolonged applause from the distinguished audience, Vajpayee said, "I insisted on going because I saw no logic in what was being told to me; and I made it loud and clear to them that Pakistan does not require my stamp for its entity. Pakistan has its own stamp."

He said if a similar question is raised when he returns home to New Delhi, "I will give the same reply".

He blamed this mind-set on the "deep-rooted feeling of suspicion and mutual mistrust that has been bred between the two countries over the decades".

"Our country was partitioned and naturally it was a painful affair that left several wounds; but these wounds have now healed and only the scars remain; and I am sure these too will go away," he remarked.

Vajpayee's speech was laced with wit and poetry. While he recited his entire composition on "Ab jung na hone denge" (We won't let a war take place anymore), he also recited a couplet of Jnanpith Award-winner Ali Sardar Jaffri on friendship.

Stressing that the two countries would strive to see that they do not go to war, he said, "Instead of fighting amongst ourselves, let us combat disease and poverty in our respective nations and be ready to assist each other in this endeavour."

He also offered to develop trade relations between the two countries. "If you have surplus power, we will buy it," he said, adding with a smile, "but, of course, please make it available at cheaper rates."

He also offered to sell wheat from India to Pakistan. "I understand that you buy wheat from far-off places; now you can get it from just across the border."

Vajpayee assured his host, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief, that "despite major damage to crops on account of floods, India still has enough wheat to spare for its neighbour".

On an emotional note, he observed, "I got only 24 hours here, but in these 24 hours, I feel the distance between Delhi and Lahore has been reduced. But remember, our goal is not just to limit this to Lahore and Delhi but to ensure that India and Pakistan sincerely and truly get closer to each other."

Recalling his two earlier visits to the erstwhile capital of undivided Punjab province, first as a high school student before Partition and again as India's foreign minister in the late Seventies, Vajpayee quipped, "Just as this is not my first visit, this is also not my last."

He hoped Sharief would reciprocate his visit to Lahore and accept his formal invitation to come to India soon.

Even as Vajpayee was busy addressing the august gathering on the sprawling green lawns of the impressively adorned Governor's House, another demonstration was being staged in the city by the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami. And unlike in the past two days, Jamaat chief Qazi Ahmed Hussain himself came out on the streets at the head of a fairly large mob.

But heavy security bandobust prevented any major problems and the mob was soon dispersed with the "use of mild force".

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