It may have sounded strange, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement at his recent press conference that he still hopes to visit Pakistan. This is despite the fact that the Pakistanis have insulted him by making it clear they can't take a lame-duck prime minister seriously.
But while the Pakistanis hope to make world peace with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it would be a great idea for Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan before his political career comes to an end in May.
There's a lot to blame Singh for, and history will be far less kind to him than he hopes. But you cannot fault his handling of Pakistan, which has been every bit as statesmanlike as that of his predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The continuity between Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress governments over foreign policy is also reflected in how India deals with Pakistan: with restraint over grave provocations, supporting Pakistan's civilians over its military establishment, with generosity that puts the Pakistanis on a back-foot, and with out-of-the-box thinking to resolve the conflict between the two nations.
Singh displayed great equanimity in his back-channel talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in his mature handling of the 26/11 terror attacks on several targets in Mumbai, resisting the temptation to threaten war and resuming talks in 2011, with generous offers of a new visa regime and trade ties, and his patient handling of the violations along the Line of Control in Kashmir in 2013. It is a pity that in ten years of handling Pakistan with care, Singh has not been able to make a state visit across the border to put his stamp on his policy.
Every Indian or Pakistani premier has wanted to make history with a grand resolution to the problems between the two nations, but the stars have never aligned in their favour, the timing has never been right. We've got used to not expecting much out of the India-Pakistan peace process, which is precisely why a symbolic visit at this time, one from which there can be no great expectations at all, would go a long way in marking a culmination of Singh’s Pakistan policy. It would hand over a neat package to the next government for its handling of Islamabad.
It needn’t even be a state visit. It could be a private visit to the Gurdwara Janam Asthan at Nankana Sahib, the holiest shrine of Sikhism, just as President Asif Ali Zardari visited the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in April 2012.
The official prayers of the Sikhs include, believe it or not, a plea for visa relaxation. In their daily Ardas, millions of Sikhs across the world ask for unhindered access to their gurdwaras. The Ardas says (rough translation), “Almighty Lord! Our helper and protector ever, restore to us the right and privilege of unhindered and free service and access to Nankana Sahib and other centres of Sikhism, from which we have been separated.”
It would only be appropriate for India’s first Sikh prime minister, who worked to ease the visa regime, to go and read the Ardas at Nankana Sahib near Lahore. From there, Singh could go to Panja Sahib near Rawalpindi. This shrine has a rock believed to have an imprint of Guru Nanak’s hand. Apart from India-Pakistan peace, Singh could pray hard to minimise the embarrassment that awaits his party in the general elections.
He may not be able to get any serious concessions from Pakistan on prosecuting the conspirators behind 26/11 or the LoC ceasefire violations, he may not be able to move an inch in resolving Siachen, Sir Creek or Kashmir as per his plan with President Musharraf, nor make Pakistan reciprocate India's Most Favoured Nation status for boosting trade ties. Yet, a soft visit will remind Pakistan of its commitments and drive home the point that it isn't just his lame-duck status in the last few years of his ten-year premiership that came in the way of making peace.
With such prayers, another gurdwara Singh must visit is the Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak in Kartarpur in Sialkot. This gurdwara is just three kilometres from the Indian border at Jammu. Singh could persuade Pakistan to create a visa-free zone for Sikh pilgrims to visit Kartarpur Sahib when they like. It was here that Guru Nanak died and because his Hindu and Muslim followers fought over how he was to be cremated, his body turned into flowers that the two sets divided. Singh could pray at the samadhi and grave alike for a similar win-win resolution to the India-Pakistan conflict. Jammu-Sialkot is also an important border crossing that should receive some of the increasing trade volumes between the two countries.
Pakistan took a major step in giving Pakistani Sikhs autonomy to run their gurdwaras with the formation of the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee in 1999. Singh could make a generous donation to the committee, and over a casual non-state lunch with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he could persuade him to allow access to more gurdwaras. Currently, Sikhs with Indian passports are allowed to visit only 20 of Pakistan's 175 gurdwaras. He could also visit the village of his birth, Gah in district Chakwal, and meet his old schoolmates, and check on the Dr RK Pachauri-led TERI's solar power project there.
Critics will ask why Dr Singh can't make such a visit after he has retired. If it is to be a personal and not a state visit, why should he go when he is still prime minister? The naysayers will also ask if a gurdwara tour by India's prime minister is a good idea just because he is Sikh. Isn't he the prime minister of a secular country?
What such a visit will achieve is to send out a message to the forces of hate on both sides that we have no choice but to make peace, and that we cannot forget this compulsion even in the worst of times. No matter how much cross-border violence we see and how much bitterness we generate over territorial disputes, Nankana Sahib will remain in Pakistan and Ajmer Sharif in India. A visit to Pakistan by Singh is in no way a negation of the Indian state's commitment to secularism. On the contrary, it would reflect our commitment to pluralism and to watching over a religious minority even as small in number as the Sikhs. And nobody's stopping him from visiting the shrine in Lahore of Data Darbar, one of the oldest Sufi shrines in the subcontinent.
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But while the Pakistanis hope to make world peace with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it would be a great idea for Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan before his political career comes to an end in May.
There's a lot to blame Singh for, and history will be far less kind to him than he hopes. But you cannot fault his handling of Pakistan, which has been every bit as statesmanlike as that of his predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The continuity between Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress governments over foreign policy is also reflected in how India deals with Pakistan: with restraint over grave provocations, supporting Pakistan's civilians over its military establishment, with generosity that puts the Pakistanis on a back-foot, and with out-of-the-box thinking to resolve the conflict between the two nations.
Singh displayed great equanimity in his back-channel talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in his mature handling of the 26/11 terror attacks on several targets in Mumbai, resisting the temptation to threaten war and resuming talks in 2011, with generous offers of a new visa regime and trade ties, and his patient handling of the violations along the Line of Control in Kashmir in 2013. It is a pity that in ten years of handling Pakistan with care, Singh has not been able to make a state visit across the border to put his stamp on his policy.
Every Indian or Pakistani premier has wanted to make history with a grand resolution to the problems between the two nations, but the stars have never aligned in their favour, the timing has never been right. We've got used to not expecting much out of the India-Pakistan peace process, which is precisely why a symbolic visit at this time, one from which there can be no great expectations at all, would go a long way in marking a culmination of Singh’s Pakistan policy. It would hand over a neat package to the next government for its handling of Islamabad.
It needn’t even be a state visit. It could be a private visit to the Gurdwara Janam Asthan at Nankana Sahib, the holiest shrine of Sikhism, just as President Asif Ali Zardari visited the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in April 2012.
The official prayers of the Sikhs include, believe it or not, a plea for visa relaxation. In their daily Ardas, millions of Sikhs across the world ask for unhindered access to their gurdwaras. The Ardas says (rough translation), “Almighty Lord! Our helper and protector ever, restore to us the right and privilege of unhindered and free service and access to Nankana Sahib and other centres of Sikhism, from which we have been separated.”
It would only be appropriate for India’s first Sikh prime minister, who worked to ease the visa regime, to go and read the Ardas at Nankana Sahib near Lahore. From there, Singh could go to Panja Sahib near Rawalpindi. This shrine has a rock believed to have an imprint of Guru Nanak’s hand. Apart from India-Pakistan peace, Singh could pray hard to minimise the embarrassment that awaits his party in the general elections.
He may not be able to get any serious concessions from Pakistan on prosecuting the conspirators behind 26/11 or the LoC ceasefire violations, he may not be able to move an inch in resolving Siachen, Sir Creek or Kashmir as per his plan with President Musharraf, nor make Pakistan reciprocate India's Most Favoured Nation status for boosting trade ties. Yet, a soft visit will remind Pakistan of its commitments and drive home the point that it isn't just his lame-duck status in the last few years of his ten-year premiership that came in the way of making peace.
With such prayers, another gurdwara Singh must visit is the Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak in Kartarpur in Sialkot. This gurdwara is just three kilometres from the Indian border at Jammu. Singh could persuade Pakistan to create a visa-free zone for Sikh pilgrims to visit Kartarpur Sahib when they like. It was here that Guru Nanak died and because his Hindu and Muslim followers fought over how he was to be cremated, his body turned into flowers that the two sets divided. Singh could pray at the samadhi and grave alike for a similar win-win resolution to the India-Pakistan conflict. Jammu-Sialkot is also an important border crossing that should receive some of the increasing trade volumes between the two countries.
Pakistan took a major step in giving Pakistani Sikhs autonomy to run their gurdwaras with the formation of the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee in 1999. Singh could make a generous donation to the committee, and over a casual non-state lunch with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he could persuade him to allow access to more gurdwaras. Currently, Sikhs with Indian passports are allowed to visit only 20 of Pakistan's 175 gurdwaras. He could also visit the village of his birth, Gah in district Chakwal, and meet his old schoolmates, and check on the Dr RK Pachauri-led TERI's solar power project there.
Critics will ask why Dr Singh can't make such a visit after he has retired. If it is to be a personal and not a state visit, why should he go when he is still prime minister? The naysayers will also ask if a gurdwara tour by India's prime minister is a good idea just because he is Sikh. Isn't he the prime minister of a secular country?
What such a visit will achieve is to send out a message to the forces of hate on both sides that we have no choice but to make peace, and that we cannot forget this compulsion even in the worst of times. No matter how much cross-border violence we see and how much bitterness we generate over territorial disputes, Nankana Sahib will remain in Pakistan and Ajmer Sharif in India. A visit to Pakistan by Singh is in no way a negation of the Indian state's commitment to secularism. On the contrary, it would reflect our commitment to pluralism and to watching over a religious minority even as small in number as the Sikhs. And nobody's stopping him from visiting the shrine in Lahore of Data Darbar, one of the oldest Sufi shrines in the subcontinent.
