Window dressing at its most absurd. Almost brutal in its casualness. The  brouhaha over the 'projected' relaxation of visa rules between India and Pakistan is largely cringeworthy because it comes in the same breath as Hina Rabbani Khar’s advice to 1.2 billion Indians to get over 26/11 and move on and not stay emotional about it. Put that gratuitous and tactless remark alongside the complete lack of interest by India in the status of Sarabjit Singh and Mr Krishna’s folderol is just some foreign policy rock and roll to make his government look like they have the nation’s well-being in hand. They’ve messed up the economy, now let’s mess up the already scrambled foreign policy. 

Anything so vital as loosening the border crossings being announced sans deadline of when all this will go into force and releasing it only minutes into the summit  meeting smacks of slippery cleverness, not sincerity. You cannot make such public statements of intent unless some homework has been done. It requires very little genius to see that this was just a populist PR move and has the depth of a paddle pool to it.

If you slice the salami, so to speak, you get slivers of nothingness. For one, you have to be over 65 to get a look in, which kind of puts it all into perspective. The nostalgia train has long left the station and pre-1947 tourism recalls are not likely to boost anything. Since reporting your presence to the police on a daily basis still stays in place it scarcely makes for a happy trip.

Then again, there is this laughable bit about eminent businessmen being given exemption from the police reporting. What is an eminent businessman and why is he like Caesar’s wife…above reproach. Contrary to the naïve Indian stance, eminent businessmen are known to finance all sorts of hanky-panky and fund terrorism, so such a flimsy category makes no sense. If only the foreign ministry could answer where the eminence starts and who loses out by a whisker?

A pre-election gimmick at best, it is doomed to failure. Actually that is not true. Nothing can fail if it starts as nothing. And this is a cipher. Indeed, since the Simla summit of 1971, most of these exercises including the ‘me and my bus’ ride by Atal Bihari Vajpayee fall by the wayside once the plane of the visiting delegation leaves the surly bonds of earth.

Unlike the US where foreign policy for the global cop hang up that permeates Washington’s psyche and colours White House incumbents with a sense of hubris, Indian foreign policy is not an electoral issue of great value. Indians don’t really care whom New Delhi befriends so long as they beat Pakistan in cricket. Lack of public pressure and rampant ignorance in the fourth estate about matters universal have allowed India’s foreign policy to bumble along myopically for 60 years without any accountability. Even today the odds are that the mandarins of media are hailing this breakthrough and engaging in much backslapping. Pious little editorials about how wonderful it all is…and hurrah SM for your heroic initiative...really? Really?

As for the Indo-Pak equation per se, neither side is serious about bettering relations. If they were, they would have done it by now. On the contrary, the reverse is true and the present situation is freighted with deeper concern than the fiction over this superficial treatment of the visa issue.

Once the Indians string up Kasab who now is literally on death row, there go love and kisses and the two neighbours will return to square one.

It would have been a lot more salutary if the Indians had demanded the release of Sarabjit and pushed the envelope. Instead, they dutifully licked it shut.
For the present do not pack your bags to go across the border. Believe me, nothing has changed and this little concessionary will end up in the garbage can of history just like so many before it.