Turning another page: An Indian book fair in Pak

Books may be a man — or a woman’s — best friend, but they may soon be pressed into the service of warming up the frost that s...

Books may be a man — or a woman’s — best friend, but they may soon be pressed into the service of warming up the frost that still defines India-Pakistan ties.

So, when External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh meets his counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on September 5-6, he will ask him to allow Indian publishers to hold a book fair in Lahore next spring.

‘‘Books can easily become a confidence-building measure between the two nations and help break the ice between them,’’ said Singh.

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The minister is already armed with a request from D.N. Malhotra, chairman emeritus of the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP), to ask Pakistani authorities to allow such a fair. In June, the FIP sent a delegation to Pakistan to check out business and have already committed to 35 stalls in a book fair in Lahore in March. In a week from now, the Delhi Book Fair will have a huge Pakistani contingent, as a result of which Pakistan has been given ‘‘guest country’’ status.

An all-Indian book fair in Pakistan, however, is a novel idea, one that Delhi is pushing. Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran met an FIP team yesterday to offer assistance, even as the Culture Secretary told her Pak counterpart during the talks last week that they should drop the ban on sale of newspapers and magazines from the other nation.

Just like Singh, Malhotra believes a book fair will help win the ‘‘hearts and minds and heads’’ of Pakistanis. But publishers admitted there were other reasons too, like the slump in the Indian publishing industry due to falling subsidies and so ‘‘diversifying’’ to another market would be a good idea. Problem is, although in theory Pakistan can import all kinds of books, in practice there is strict monitoring.

Analysts pointed out that the ‘‘media’’ has been a favourite CBM of post-Cold War leaderships. The classic example is that of Gorbachev and Reagan allowing Pravda and the New York Times to be sold in each other’s capitals.