NEW DELHI, 19 June — As Delhi prepares to welcome Gen. Pervez Musharraf, its eyes are also on developments across the border in Pakistan.
The same is true in Islamabad. A spokesman for Pakistan, Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureishi, said, “Let us not do anything to vitiate the atmosphere at this stage.”
The significance accorded to the Indo-Pak summit by global powers cannot be ignored. A number of prominent personalities from India and Pakistan are expected to visit the US and these include the principal secretary to the prime minister and national security adviser, Brajesh Mishra, the leader of the opposition and the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister A. Sattar is already in the US on a three-day visit.
As far as ordinary people are concerned, if Pakistani plays are hits in India, Bollywood is equally popular in Pakistan. As bureaucrats and critics are engaged in brainstorming sessions to finalize the itineraries, the venue and the agenda of the summit, children of the region have chosen to give Indo-Pak relations a different face.
Last Friday, children from Chandigarh, Islamabad and Lahore staged a play, written by a Pakistani playwright Shahid Nadeem, in Chandigarh’s Tagore Theater.
The play built upon the cultural and linguistic similarities between Indians and Pakistanis was described as “a never-before attempt at improving relations between the people of two warring nations.” If, as the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray believes, the Vajpayee-Musharraf talks will be “an exercise in futility,” certainly the children of the region would disagree.
