Unfortunately, the BJP/Parivar troglodytes have chosen this juncture to resurrect their jaded rhetoric, with little thought for the consequences of preaching divisiveness and hate. To cite a parliamentary resolution as permanently binding is to limit popular sovereignty and ignore a people’s right to forge their own destiny from one generation to the next. It is this revivalist rather than progressive bent of mind (seen when Atal Bihari Vajpayee boldly launched India on the road to rapprochement with Pakistan and L.K. Advani recalled Jinnah’s famous inaugural address to the Pakistan Constituent Assembly on August 13, 1947) that represents the dark downside of the BJP.

Meanwhile, the Indo-Pakistan diplomatic back channel has been at work preparing the ground for the prime minister’s visit to Pakistan in the next few months. Yet one cannot lose sight of the fact that cross-border terrorism continues, not just across the LoC but from other points as well. The Pakistan establishment has over the years unleashed various demons that it is unable fully to control and it is possible that rogue elements within the ISI and administration are playing their own games in league with the religious right and jihadi elements who feel threatened by the prospect of peace with India. President Musharraf has hinted as much in stating that intelligence agencies on either side have built careers trying to destabilise and subvert the other. Vigilance is certainly in order, but it would be in India’s own interest to help the general walk his talk.

... contd.