I have very fond memories of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and all of them are very vivid. I remember the tense negotiations that went into the drafting of a joint statement to be issued on January 6, 2004 after talks between Pervez Musharraf and Vajpayee. Vajpayee was not very comfortable at the beginning of the meeting at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the official residence of the Pakistan president. But the fact that he was in Pakistan, for attending a South Asian summit, indicated the importance he gave to India’s ties with Pakistan.
He also knew how to lighten such moments. He spoke about the great achkans the Pakistani tailors make. We immediately ordered two sets of achkans from top Pakistani designers that were sent to him later. He sent his autographed photographs to these designers later.
It was under Vajpayee that the two sides began back-channel diplomacy on Jammu & Kashmir. When Vajpayee lost power in 2004, we were worried about the future of these talks. But to his credit, his successor continued the process that was begun by Brajesh Mishra (Vajpayee’s principal secretary and national security advisor) through J N Dixit (the NSA under PM Manmohan Singh) and SK Lambah.
Read - Gently into the Valley: How Vajpayee won over Kashmir
These discussions were initiated under Vajpayee and the solutions we proposed were a win-win for all three-- first for the people of Pakistan and then for both India and Pakistan.
{{/usCountry}}These discussions were initiated under Vajpayee and the solutions we proposed were a win-win for all three-- first for the people of Pakistan and then for both India and Pakistan.
{{/usCountry}}No one can better them. No future leaders could ignore what had begun under Vajpayee and carried forward by Manmohan Singh. India and Pakistan need to resolve their differences. Vajpayee, a statesman, showed the way.
(As told to Jayanth Jacob)
(Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, is a Pakistani politician and writer who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan between November 2002 until November 2007)