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NEW DELHI : Pervez Musharraf, who resigned as Pakistani president on Monday, took the country to the brink of war with India in 1999, only to launch a sustained peace process a few years later.
Musharraf was Pakistan's army chief during the Kargil conflict in 1999, when India and Pakistan almost went to war after India launched air strikes on militants in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Nawaz Sharif was prime minister at the time. A few months later, Musharraf overthrew Sharif in a bloodless coup and became president-cum-army chief.
And India watched with growing horror, expecting relations to plummet to further depths. But in a surprise move, Musharraf extended the olive branch. He went to Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, in 2001 for peace talks with India.
The meeting, however, ended on a sour note as the two sides could not agree on the vexed problem of Kashmir - an issue that has been a thorn in the flesh for over 60 years.
In the eight years that Musharraf was president, the border ceasefire in November 2003 and launch of the peace process and Composite Dialogue between the two countries in January 2004 will go down in history as important landmarks.
Vinod Sharma, political editor of Hindustan Times, said: "We are used to a Parliamentary democracy at home (in India) - its strengths and shortcomings. I think we'll have to give the Pakistani rulers some benefit of doubt in the initial stage. But eventually, they will have to deliver on the promise of not promoting any terrorist activity against India."
Musharraf was the first Pakistani leader to suggest that Pakistan was ready to give up its demand for an independent Kashmir, and assured that Islamabad would no longer insist on plebiscite and the UN resolutions on Kashmir, if India accepted his four-point proposal.
But ironically, just as the Pakistan president quit, calls for plebiscite and freedom from India have been raised again in Kashmir, after 20 long years of relative peace.
Sharma said: "If you are going to leave the decision (of the Kashmir resolutions) to the Parliaments (of Indian and Pakistan), then you would have to reconcile the conflicting voices and come to some degree of a common ground.
"Now what that common ground will be, one will have to wait and watch. It may not be entirely of liking to India, but we'll have to live with it and we'll have to deal with it."
India's official reaction to Musharraf's resignation has been muted. It stresses that relations with Pakistan are not individual-specific and it looks forward to working with the elected civilian government.
But the security establishment in India will watch closely as to which Pakistani leader gets the backing of the army and the intelligence outfit ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence).
The exit of Musharraf from the power equation may result in the military playing a more autonomous role on issues like the peace process and the Kashmir problem. - CNA /ls
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