Neighbourly Bus Link
Happy news from the western part of the subcontinent. The two sworn enemies for the last fifty years have opened their borders for bus service from Delhi to Lahore and vice versa. This is the direct outcome of talks between Atal Behari Bajpayee and Mohammad Nawaz Sharif in September last at New York. Only last year these two countries on top of having fought three wars tested nuclear devices much to the horror and dismay of millions of citizens groaning under severe poverty, malnutrition, unemployment and illiteracy in both the countries. Despite their mutual distrust of each other the introduction of a direct bus service between Delhi and Lahore, besides the existing air and railway link, is highly commendable. Even though the two countries are currently ruled by so-called rightist or fundamentalist parties, it is probably one of the better developments that could take place in normalising the soured relation between them. Though initially tourists will not be allowed to avail themselves of this service which is exclusively meant for relatives living on either side of the border, it is expected that in due course this restriction will be lifted to encourage more people-to-people contacts by way of diffusing tensions in the subcontinent.
This reminds us of our own plans to introduce a Dhaka-Calcutta bus service. For quite some time now both India (particularly West Bengal) and Bangladesh have been toying with the idea but so far nothing tangible has happened, it seems. As in Pakistan and India there are people here who may oppose such an idea but that should not be the guiding spirit for the government. If they could do it within four months in spite of their strained relations why should we take such a long time to do the same in spite of our good neighbourliness?
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