Vajpayee was a strong advocate of peace with Pakistan. His bus ride from Delhi to Lahore on February 19, 1999 is counted among the highlights of his political career, along with the nuclear tests that India conducted between May 11 and 13 in 1998 and that prompted Pakistan to respond in the same coins just 15 days later. The Delhi-Lahore bus service — officially known as Sada-e-Sarhad or Call of the Frontier — was an unusual first in the history of Pak-India relations. For the first time, the two arch-rivals were connected with a direct bus service. Prime Minister Vajpayee’s Lahore visit by the bus is thus far the most serious attempt at normalising the ever-tense bilateral ties. During the visit, Vajpayee and Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, signed the Lahore Declaration on February 21, 1999 which was ratified by the parliaments of both countries the same year. Widely hailed by the world community, the bilateral agreement, however, lost impetus with the outbreak of the Kargil war in May 1999.
India’s tallest politician in recent times breathed his last on 16th August, 2018 at the age of 93. To quote Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, “His leadership, foresight, maturity and eloquence put him in a league of his own.” AB Vajpayee’s supporters and detractors all agree that he was the rarest of the happenings in Indian politics.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2018.
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