In fact, Malik is the first top separatist leader who has publicly sought BJP’s support for the Congress-led UPA to push forth the Indo-Pak peace process especially at a time when there are feelers from Islamabad that a “Kashmir agreement” is in the works.

“I have observed with much distress that your good self along with your colleagues, through your public comments, might have started adopting a changed approach towards the ongoing peace process on Kashmir,” Malik says and refers to the letters which Vajpayee himself and L K Advani have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thereby creating doubts about the talks process. “Then again, we have all witnessed Jaswant Singh’s disruption of the Rajya Sabha while calling into question Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s moves on the peace process and raising alarms about its direction”.

“As a seasoned and experienced statesman, you are well aware of how difficult it is to exercise political will and take visionary steps and, most importantly, how challenging the follow-through is to ensure,” Malik says in his letter. “As the leading opposition party of India, the choices that you and your colleagues make have a direct bearing on the agility of the present government in Delhi to move forward in bold ways. You have an important role and great responsibility as opposition to build political will for the weighty decisions yet to be made on the peace process”.

Recalling Vajpayee’s contribution and citing his Lahore bus journey in 1999, Hizbul ceasefire and the talks in 2000, Malik says: “Today the people of South Asia are in need of precisely the type of visionary steps you have heralded in the past. While events often took unpredictable turns, throughout your tenure as Prime Minister you have consistently tried to create openings and take bold steps. Despite many upsets, you still persisted”.

Then Malik goes into details of NDA’s track II with the separatists. “For six months, you directly engaged the then united (Hurriyat), led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, through your team including R K Mishra and Brajesh Mishra. R K Mishra had conveyed the seriousness of your government to me and quoted you as saying: ‘Before going from this world, I wish to resolve the Kashmir issue.’”

“I met the Congress leadership including the current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the then chairperson of the Rajya Sabha Najma Heptullah (now your party colleague). At the end of that meeting, the current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked me as to what did we expect from the Congress. I replied that ‘as Opposition, support Vajpayee fully.’ Within 24 hours...a Congress party delegation including Manmohan Singh, Natwar Singh and Arjun Singh met you and the Congress party openly endorsed your initiative to start a serious peace process,” Malik says in his letter.

Giving all the credit for initiating the Indo-Pak peace process to Vajpayee, Malik says: “You (Vajpayee) persisted in your attempts to open a peace process on Kashmir and despite Kargil you invited President Musharraf for the Agra Summit in July 2001...when you extended a historical handshake of friendship to Pakistan and Kashmiris on the soil of Kashmir (in April 2003) was the start of the current peace process.”

Malik urges Vajpayee to shape the course of events. “I fear that domestic politics and a return to short-sided parochialism within India may once again be entering into the dynamic surrounding the Kashmir issue. If so, it will be at a great cost to the people of South Asia who deserve a just and lasting peace for their future,” Malik writes. “For this reason, I would like to encourage you to articulate, urge and support the type of visionary and bold move that is needed today from the present government in New Delhi to ensure that the ongoing peace process moves forward, becomes institutionalized and inclusive and gains in seriousness”.