India was divided in 1947 which led to the birth of Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan have many things in common-history, culture, tradition and the freedom struggle against the same British Rule. Due to partition, there came a lot of bitterness over borders, land and river water, etc. between the two countries.
India always tries to maintain a good relationship with Pakistan on cooperation, mutual trust and understanding. But the reality is that she has not been able so far to establish cordial and friendly relations with Pakistan. Pakistan has always claimed Kashmir on grounds of religion, economic need and physical security. For this it (Pakistan) has declared three major wars against India and the recent one is the Kargil conflict in 1999. Pakistan occupied certain portions of Inida in Jammu and Kashmir on this side of the Line of actual control. It was given a befitting reply and these parts were got vacated.
Pakistan has never got success in its efforts still it is bent on mischief. The Shimla Agreement between our then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Z.A. Bhutto of Pakistan was meant. to resolve the disputes peacefully. For the same purpose there , was another recent Lahore Agreement between the Prime Minster Atal Bahari Vaj payee of India and Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan. But no concrete result came out of these agreements.
On July 15-16 2001, a summit level meeting was also held between A.B. Vajpayee and Pakistani President, Parvez Musharraf at Agra. However, after two days of the concentrated discussions, India and Pakistan could not agree on a set of words that would describe their respective core concerns cross-borders terrorism and Kashmir—well enough to satisfy both.
Pakistan has never changed its outlook inspite of all efforts. It continues to support and encourage terrorist activity in Kashmir. Also the nuclear and other deadly weapons which Pakistan has acquired are a constant source of concern for India. At the same time we are still trying to find a solution to the problems and also to develop and maintain a friendly relationship which will benefit both countries. For improving this relationship, the then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee took the historic initiative of travelling to Lahore on the inaugural run of the Delhi-Lahore-Delhi Bus service on 20-21 February. 1999.
Thus, all our efforts always mean to encourage and facilitate contact between the people of the two countries. But Pakistan never feels our sentiments and tries to hurt them by all means. Still, we must be hopeful that good sense will prevail on Pakistan very soon and she would realize the value of our attempts for good relations between the two countries.
