Nat Nithi-Ot
I had this weekend spent in Lahore. I was invited to the Wagah Border ceremonies and the dinner later in the night at Lahore Fort..
Mr Vajpai trip was quite historic for our region that inhibits nearly a billion people a fifth of global population, I do agree that size of population of the region has no resemblance to the size their share in global trade, which is only 2% of global trade, it was really shocking to see that one fifth of humanity has only 1/50th of global trade . It did occur to me that had mutual co-existance and peace instead of hatred ruled this region, this area could have been so much different. I was at Wagah nearly half an hour early, our PM came later on and had to wait ofr Mr Vajpai for 15 minutes. Across the gate we could see hundreds of girls waving flags in anticpation of Mr Vajpai's bus.
He rode the bus from Amritsar and was warmly sent off by the people waitng on both side's of the road. On our side it was sad to see that few thousand militant's had taken the whole nation hostage, they would just not allow anyone to be a part of the festivities.. however, these people were throughly rejected and people by and large welcomed the visit of Indian PM.
Between Indian and Pakistani border lies a small pieace of land called as no man's land, as we were waiting for Mr Vajpai's bus on popular Indian demand our PM with his entourage walked up to the Indian gate and stopped just short of Indian territory where he enthusiaitcally repsonded to huge display of emotions from across the border. I witnessed it all and was greatly moved.
It was sad to see thatleadership of billion people wasted so much of their time and talent in devising ways and means to divide the region. I was thrilled to see the border it took my driver just 15 minutes from downtown Lahore to reach BRB Canal, from there to the border was another 10 minutes. I never ever thought that Lahore sits so near to the border. I could only as I drove thru Lahore and later on the out skirts the disasters of war can wroght on this densely populated region of Punjab.
You must have read about the arrival ceremonies but I can tell you that the two leaders greeted each other with warmth and seriousness, I shook hands with Mr Vajpai and was happy to meet Mr Kapil dev Dev Annand and Jawed AKhtar.. The dinner in the night at fort as set up in Moghul style, no glory was spared in this so called 15 course meals, background music was very touching as the musicians played 'Ghar Aiya mera' . I was seated with your PM cardiologist and his Assistant along with one senioir Minister, we had lot of discussions and we all agreed the to go forward we have to have peace and mutual coexistance.. |
