On the list of proposed confidence-building measures (CBMs) between India and Pakistan, the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus link stands out for its potential to become a pathbreaking connection.
And anxiously waiting for the wheels to roll is a former US diplomat, far away from the negotiating table, in Washington D.C. After all, says John McDonald, it’s his idea.
He may be ageing now, but the years fall away as McDonald unveils the story of the bus, a concept for which he was even complimented by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
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‘‘I even spoke about this to the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) when he visited me here sometime ago. He was very excited and said he would fully support it,’’ says McDonald. Even as he was talking to The Indian Express at his office in the Institute of Multi-Track Diplomacy here—he is its chairman—McDonald was making last-minute preparations for a trip to Kathmandu where he has arranged for 10 Kashmiris from either side of the Line of Control (LoC) to participate in a week-long dialogue.
The reason for his growing involvement in the region, he says, dates back to an incident that happened four years ago, in April 2000.
‘‘I was addressing a crowd of around 5,000 Kashmiri refugees in Muzaffarabad. The sentiment to reunite with friends and relatives separated by a line on the map was very high. And I got carried away. It was at that moment that I came up with this idea of a people’s bus between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad,’’ he says. ‘‘A year ago, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had travelled in a bus from Delhi to Lahore and I told them that if that was a political bus, this would be a people’s bus, a bus for peace,’’ McDonald recalls.
Surprised at the positive response, he made it his mission to write and speak about the bus to all those who mattered. ‘‘I wrote letters, several of them, to the heads of state of both countries. When I did not receive a response, I wrote to others in the hierarchy, the foreign ministers, the India and Pakistan embassies in Washington and other people. But there was no response for a long time,’’ he says. Finally, the ball started rolling. The then Pakistani Ambassador to the US Maleeha Lodhi forwarded his letter to Musharraf. And in a few weeks, he responded.
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‘‘He wrote back to me, saying he liked the idea very much and would consider raising it with the Indian leadership when he meets them next. I received no response from the Indians but, as it turned out, they were the ones who finally made the proposal in October 2003,’’ says McDonald. However, he can’t help but feel frustrated about how the concept has got entangled in issues such as travel documents. ‘‘This should not be a major issue. I mean let them get some piece of paper, which certifies them as Kashmiris and let them travel. One can’t let this opportunity to have a great symbol of peace in Kashmir be held hostage to travel documents. In between, there was talk of UN documentation. Now, how does the UN get involved in this?’’ McDonald says.
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