Modi in Lahore

Air India One’s detour to Lahore was a stunning public relations coup. But it has the potential to rearrange the geopolitics of the region, mired in mistrust and violence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed to have suddenly decided to visit Lahore. This left little time for the usual suspects to throw in a spanner or two. The Tribune has welcomed the succession of high level Indo-Pak meetings chalked out over the last three months that will lead to Modi’s proposed visit to Islamabad later next year for the SAARC summit. The brief Modi-Nawaz Sharif conversation should empower diplomacy to iron out procedural wrinkles and accommodate each other’s political limitations before next month’s meeting of Foreign Secretaries.

 

The ripple-waves from the break in journey in Lahore go beyond imparting personal warmth in Indo-Pak bilateral ties. With his knack of high drama, Modi landed in Lahore on Nawaz Sharif’s birthday. It also happened to be the birthday of Atal Behari Vajpayee who embarked on normalisation of ties just two years after the Kargil War. But there have been several such moments earlier. What was more noteworthy is that this is the first time an Indian PM has stopped in Pakistan on the way back from Afghanistan. In a diplomatic world, hooked on gestures and symbolisms, this will be read as India’s assurance of walking back from a mutually adversarial position in Afghanistan.

 

Indo-Pak rapprochement now has several powerful backers, partly because of the regional security situation. The resilience shown by ISIS has caught the fancy of a section of Central Asian youth. The lack of engagement has led to some Taliban commanders pledging allegiance to ISIS. The West, forced to redeploy its forces in Afghanistan much against its wishes, dearly wants India-Pakistan to work out a political settlement and prevent the rise of ISIS in the region. Pakistan has already asked its Ministers not to speak ill of India. Modi needs to advice his party colleagues and also the Sangh Parivar not to publicly articulate their worldview about Pakistan. From Lahore, the journey to Islamabad should be a smooth ride.