Caution advised

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore to personally greet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday may look good for bilateral diplomacy, but India needs to be cautious because whenever serious peace attempts have been made, Pakistan has responded with guns, like it did with Kargil after Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Lahore bus journey. But Mr Modi’s attempt should not be written off for an unconventional approach may yield better returns than the structured responses laid out by foreign policy manuals.

Ashok Goswami

Via email