In what has become an established tradition, at midnight on 14 August peace activists from India and Pakistan lit candles at Wagah as a mark of solidarity and a symbol of peace. At the same place a few days earlier, following a diplomatic tit-for-tat, an Indian embassy official returned home after being expelled on spying charges. The Pakistani diplomat, for his part, took the flight back to Islamabad from Delhi after being declared persona non grata.
Step by step, we are seeing an unravelling of what is known as the 'composite dialogue' between India and Pakistan. The powder keg of populist nationalist politics is easily lit by terrorist acts, and when this happens and the media grabs onto the story, there is little that otherwise responsible diplomats and politicians on either side can do but go with the flow.
The Bombay blasts, which followed the Benaras temple bombing and the New Delhi market terror, have effectively brought public diplomacy between Islamabad and New Delhi to a halt. Conservative commentators in both countries are suddenly in high demand on television shows and newspaper columns, and they question the logic of the peace process. We dare say that the Indian and Pakistani intelligentsia and diplomatic echelons had better brace themselves for more blasts. Because it seems that the militants responsible for brutalising the innocent will do everything to destroy the peace process. Let us not succumb to this all-too-obvious plan, and let terror get the upper hand.
In a very real sense, Pervez Musharraf and Manmohan Singh are on the same side when it comes to wanting peace with the other country, and not wanting the militants to wreck the peace process. Look at it this way: seen from a New Delhi perspective, President Musharraf has the right 'enemies' – as proven by the fact that the groups India has accused the president of harbouring have in fact been those that have attempted to assassinate him.