Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee arrived at Wagah on the evening of February 19, 1999, on the inaugural Delhi-Labore bus service to a 19-gun salute and a welcome bereft of participation by the public and Pakistan’s top military leadership.
The three services chiefs, however, later called on Vajpayee at the Punjab Governor’s residence where the Indian PM was staying.
There was mild applause from the host side led by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as a bhangra party led the bus before making way for it to drive past the white and green entry gate into Pakistan.
Sharif hugged Vajpayee as he alighted from the coach shortly past 4.30pm. The next person to emerge from the gold-coloured bus was external affairs minister Jaswant Singh. But his Pakistani counterpart, Sartaj Aziz, was conspicuous by his absence at Wagah; he was in Islamabad with Chinese defence minister Gen Chi Haotian.
At a banquet at Lahore Fort later in the evening, Vajpayee exhorted Sharif to join him in developing “trust, confidence and amity” and noted that his current visit was “only the beginning” and that “we will, together, give direction to our officials to accelerate what we have jointly set in motion”.
The ceremony at Wagah, which lasted almost an hour, was mainly a photo opportunity. In his arrival statement, the Indian PM described the bus journey as a “defining moment” in the history of South Asia. The two leaders were closeted for a one-on-one meeting in the VIP lounge before leaving by an Army helicopter for Lahore.
“It is with a great sense of elation that I find myself on Pakistani soil after a gap of 21 years… I bring the goodwill and hope of my fellow Indians to seek abiding peace and harmony with Pakistan,” remarked Vajpayee. “I am conscious,” he said, “that this is a defining moment in the history of South Asia and I hope that we will be able to rise to the challenge”.
Shortly before the visiting delegation’s arrival, the Radcliffe Line appeared to have blurred when Sharif, accompanied by brother Shahbaz, the chief minister of West Punjab, walked into the neutral zone that is called no-man’s land, and stood there for a few minutes for the benefit of the cameramen on the other side of the border. Border Security Force (BSF) personnel reacted to the Pakistan Premier’s spontaneous gesture by throwing open the gates to enable a better view for the crowds assembled on the Indian side.
The tea meeting at Punjab Governor Syed Hamid’s official residence was eventful with the presence of the chief minister of the two Punjabs, Parkash Singh Badal and Shahbaz Sharif. A graduate from Government College, Lahore (like fellow bus-traveller actor Dev Anand), Badal was on his first visit to the neighbouring country since 1947.
“We are one. We have the same language. It’s great occasion, a milestone,” remarked the evergreen star who was chased by journalists from both countries. An equally pleased, Badal introduced himself as the “last (Indian) graduate” from Lahore.
The euphoria was marred by protests by hardline Jamaat-e-Islami activists who stoned a section of the Indian PM’s convoy en route to the historic Lahore Fort. No one was hurt but there were a lot of red faces among the hosts after the incident.