With Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf emerging as the single largest party in the General Assembly, his becoming the Prime Minister of Pakistan is a foregone conclusion. Even as Khan extended an olive branch to the Indian establishment in his speeches, Prime Minister Modi too has responded in kind by calling him up and expressing hope for better relations between the two neighbors. This is a good beginning, although too much cannot be read in it.

The lure of quick emotional appeal by blaming the other side for failures is de rigueur for political players. India and Pakistan have long been on a destructive streak of avoidable escalation of issues and mutual condemnation. Imran Khan’s appeal lies much in him being perceived as an outsider in the power structure of Pakistan, even though he enjoys the support of the most powerful political force in the country, the army. He has shown a willingness to change the narrative that had long confined itself to narrow partisanship. India must respond to it in kind.

Indeed, Prime Minister Modi, with his penchant for out-of-the-box thinking, could be a willing partner in striving towards greater mutual understanding and peace, even though he has burnt his hands once with his impromptu birthday greetings to Khan’s predecessor. More than grand gestures, incremental gains, made by focusing on details and diplomatic processes, that are likely to yield long-lasting results. But then, the beginning is always in setting the tone, which the two leaders have done. Squandering away yet another chance to bring peace to the subcontinent would be a folly that both India and Pakistan can ill afford. Realistically, the two leaders have begun well, and that is all. They both will need to avoid the temptation of heeding to the hawks and the politician’s urge to seize the spotlight even as they allow diplomats to interact and to work out solutions that become building blocks which would enable the two countries to negotiate the burdens of history by focusing on the present and the future.

(Tribune, India)