The two interlocutors had worked together tirelessly and discreetly for years and hammered an out-of-the-box solution for establishing peace in the neighbourhood. Experts believe that if the domestic and geo-political equations had continued to favour them, the relations between India and Pakistan could have improved and the thorny issue of Kashmir could have been resolved without bloodshed.
Aziz and Lambah were also among the last few in the diplomatic circle who had their roots in each other's country. Their families had gone through the trauma of partition, and migration and they shared a common history. They understood the significance of the common religious and cultural ties, and the importance of restoring peace, trade and travel between the two countries. Both also had political winds blowing in their favour.
Lambah was born in Peshawar in 1941. His wife was from Lahore. Like millions of other Hindu and Sikh migrants, he could never snap the connections with his roots. He developed friendly ties with Pakistanis when he was posted as deputy high commissioner (1978-81) and high commissioner (1992-95) in Pakistan, that later helped him in laying the foundation of the India-Pakistan peace process.
Retired Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak while remembering the two diplomats said: “Aziz and Musharraf had been friends for decades. Likewise, in India, Lambah enjoyed the trust and confidence of both prime ministers, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh.”
Calling the period between 2002-14 the golden period of the India-Pakistan relationship, he added, “Over the numerous meetings that Lambah and Aziz had, they developed a high degree of understanding of the problem and developed friendship, and so they succeeded in reaching a consensus.”
Both the diplomats, at the initiative of their bosses, conducted several backchannel secret meetings between 2002 and 2007. Most of the meetings took place either in Singapore or Bangkok. “This was also the time when they would travel across the Wagah-Attari border to meet and discuss far away from the media [attention],” added Kak.
It was because of men like Lambah and Aziz that the backchannel discussions were not stalled, despite the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 or the Samjhauta train blast in 2007. They were people who rose against compulsion and constraints.
Hard Work And Conviction
It was after years of hard work and conviction that a Non-Paper on Kashmir was drafted and exchanged. It entailed that the two countries did not have to give away even an inch of their land to the other to restore normalcy.
In an newspaper interview in 2015, after the change of government in India, when Narendra Modi took charge, Lambah said: “What we were working on, agreed there would be no reference to the United Nations resolution or a plebiscite in Kashmir. Both sides had agreed that borders cannot be redrawn.”
It was because of men like Lambah and Aziz that the backchannel discussions were not stalled, despite the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 or the Samjhauta train blast in 2007. They were people who rose against compulsion and constraints.
As peace activist Sudheendra Kulkarni recalls: “Lambah was deeply committed towards peace and friendship with Pakistan. Indian interest was safe in his hand and uppermost in his mind, and he enjoyed the confidence of both Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh. That is how he and Aziz could reach a four-point formula.”
Kulkarni served as a director of operations in the office of Vajpayee when Lambah was assigned this job.
It got difficult for Manmohan Singh to continue dialogue with Pakistan after the Mumbai terror attacks. He faced pressure not only from the opposition but also from his party. He, however, did not close the backchannel.
“There are times when for a larger interest, one has to rise above certain compulsions and constraints. And this was well understood then. Even after incidences like the Samjhauta blast and Mumbai terror attacks, the dialogue did not stop,” added Kak.
The Non-Paper could not turn into an agreement, which had the potential to build a relationship based on trust and faith. The highlights of the agreement included military forces on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) being kept to a minimum, especially in populated areas. The border was to be made porous, allowing people of Jammu and Kashmir on either side of the LoC easy passage to and from one side to the other.
The two governments had agreed to ensure to work out a cooperative and consultative mechanism to maximise the gains of cooperation in solving problems of social and economic development of the region. It was also agreed that the two nations would ensure strengthening Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
At The Cost Of Article 370
A decade later, the two diplomats engaged in these negotiations are gone and Kashmir has been stripped of its special status. “The only silver lining that we can see now in this entire issue is that Pakistan has realised that there is nothing that it can do vis-a-vis Article 370 and Kashmir. It is no longer bringing up this issue as a pre-condition for dialogue. But despite all of this India is not ready to take a step forward,” added Kulkarni.
Analysts maintain that like Lambah and Aziz, Singh and Musharraf shared the pain of partition. Musharraf hailed from Delhi and Manmohan Singh from Chakwal in Pakistan’s Punjab. “It is believed that Musharraf had told Singh that he was from Delhi and Singh from Pakistan and there could not have been a better combination available to resolve the dispute,” said Islamabad-based analyst Ershad Mahmud.
Sources close to Vajpayee say that when Vajpayee had to make way for Dr Manmohan Singh in 2004, he left a handwritten note for his successor requesting him not to stall the work on four major fronts that his government had initiated -- to continue dialogue with Pakistan to establish peace in the region was one of the four points. Dr Singh considered his request and allowed Lambah and his team to keep the backchannel talks going.
As a practice, when governments change, the bureaucracy undergoes a rejig. But Singh trusted Lambah for the job, despite ideological differences between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. It was only after Modi took office in 2014 that Lambah did not get an extension, and the peace process hit a deadend.
Kulkarni blames the attitude of the Modi government for the currently strained relationship with Pakistan. “At a time when Pakistani and Indian Muslims are treated as villains, it is difficult to expect from India that dialogues will resume,” he added. Kulkarni also said that while both Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa have been speaking about establishing cordial relationships with India, New Delhi is not reciprocating. “Unfortunately, heads of both India and Pakistan were present at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), but they did not even show basic courtesy."
Lambah said: “What we were working on, agreed there would be no reference to the United Nations resolution or a plebiscite in Kashmir. Both sides had agreed that borders cannot be redrawn.”
The Stories of Partition
Seventy-five years on, the generation that has lived through the India-Pakistan partition in 1947 and has narrated stories of partition is on the verge of extinction in the two countries. The newer generation living across borders has limited opportunities to engage with each other. “No dialogue between the new generation, politicians and diplomats will weaken the link between the two countries. Had we successfully reached a solution, Kashmir could have acted like a buffer and the differences between India and Pakistan could have faded away,” added Mahmud.
Continuing to pin his hope on the Aziz-Lambah formula, Kak added that there can be no better solution. “Let us accept this truth that neither India nor Pakistan is going to engage in a war to take over the whole of Kashmir. By recognising the LoC, India has made an admission that it is happy with its part of the territory and so we need a non-territorial solution, like the one this formula has offered.”
The destruction caused by the recent floods in Pakistan has yet again rung the alarm bells that the two nations cannot continue to ignore mutual interests. Himalayas and their rivers criss-cross India and Pakistan. The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) signed between the two nations focuses only on water distribution. It has hardly set rules for managing the condition of the rivers or setting up a joint mechanism to stop floods.
“The line of control is just a line on the map. The Himalayas and their rivers do not understand these boundaries. It is time that the two nations sit together not just over Kashmir, but over issues involving the Himalayas, climate change and its common people,” added Kak.
With Aziz and Lambah gone, many aspects of India-Pakistan diplomacy on Kashmir remain hidden. Those keeping a keen eye on the diplomacy and believers of dialogue and Track II diplomacy between the two states await Lambah’s memoir to be released by his family. Lambah had completed his book, just days before he was hospitalised, which his family sources said will be unveiled soon. We hope that it throws light on one of the most missed opportunities that could have brought peace, security, prosperity and tranquillity to the South Asian region.