Noted American journalist and academician, Stephen Kinzer, nailed the Pakistani truism when he noted, “Most Pakistani politics is conducted within a narrow spectrum. Politicians spend much time debating the best ways to fight India, or take Kashmir, or dominate Afghanistan, or punish the United States for its real and imagined sins”.
If any one element of the Pakistani ‘establishment’ were to stray from such an inflexible formulation, then the other pieces of the multilayered ‘establishment’ would rein-in the digression from the existential path. Take, for instance, Lahore Bus journey initiated by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a move that intrinsically delegitimised ‘hate’.
The bus-diplomacy almost ushered in portents of peace with Vajpayee’s words, “Hum jung na hone denge….Teen bar lad chuke ladayi, kitna mehnga sauda….Hum jung na hone denge..”(We will not allow a war, we have fought thrice and it was an expensive outcome…we must not allow another war) and pacified the imagined ‘hate’.
The sage words were oblivious of the lurking intent of the military leadership of Pakistan, who were already planning Kargil, as peace overtures were dialed up by the civilian politicians.