Can India, Pakistan agree?

For the first time in a year, it appears that an Indian government actually has a chance at political survival. The Bharatiya Janata Party leads a coalition which appears stronger than the recent governments stitched together by a series of prime ministers. BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee has contributed a lot to this show of stability. Vajpayee has scaled back the tone and intensity of his party's most controversial -- and offensive -- plans.

To his credit, Vajpayee has accepted this voter-mandated limit on his authority well. As he formed his government last month, he vowed he would have no religious agenda, despite BJP's policy for a Hindu-dominated state. His new National Agenda program tones down the BJP platform of swadeshi, or nationalism. Gone is the vow to build a Hindu temple over the Ayodhya mosque. Gone too is the special status for Jammu and Kashmir, the only Moslem state. Forgotten is the pledge for a civil code that would have sought to diminish Moslems.

That leaves the interlocking problems of nuclear arms and relations with Pakistan. On his neighbor, Vajpayee was forthright. He would go the extra mile to improve relations with Islamabad. That was very encouraging. But it must be realized that the Indian leader gave no new ideas or proposals.

What is needed on the subcontinent in general, in India specifically, is a little more reason and much less rhetoric. India's nationalists may be all for making the nation a nuclear power. But this would diminish India in the world's eyes. It would also, of course, greatly increase the chances of a terrible war in Asia. The neighbors of India and Pakistan hope these two countries can reduce tension, rather than contribute to it.

-- The Bangkok Post