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Delhi-Lahore bus drives on through worsening ties

George Iype in New Delhi

One year after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's historic bus journey to Lahore, India and Pakistan commemorated the event by each expelling three of the other's diplomats.

But the inter-country service that was launched after Vajpayee's peace mission to Pakistan on February 20, 1999, completed its debut year and continues its ride without any hiccups.

The Kargil conflict, the military coup in Pakistan, and the deteriorating diplomatic relations between the two countries have not affected the bus service between Lahore and Delhi. The bus still crosses the border thrice a week as a symbol of the lost yet enduring relationship between the people of the divided land.

But those who queue up daily before the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi for visas to travel on the bus to Lahore are angry that the governments of India and Pakistan have forgotten its significance and not celebrated its anniversary.

Aslam Quereshi, a 50-year-old merchant from Aligarh who is preparing to visit his relatives in Lahore, laments that "the governments have completely forgotten about the bus service".

"Last year, the inauguration of the service was celebrated as if the two nations had forgotten their enmity. But it is very sad that the bus service has not helped to repair their relationship," Quereshi told rediff.com

But Mohammad Khan, a retired bureaucrat settled in Delhi, who will board the bus to Lahore on Friday, says people are happy that "the bus ride still exists despite the worsening relations between India and Pakistan".

"We were worried that the bus service would be scrapped during the Kargil conflict. It means that though the governments and armies are battling for Kashmir, there is no hatred between the people of Pakistan and India. That is a good sign," Khan told rediff.com

The Delhi-Lahore bus, which began commercial operations on March 16, 1999, was packed for the next two months. But the Delhi Transport Corporation, which operates the service from the Indian side, says the bookings have now come down with the initial euphoria evaporating.

"Even during the Kargil conflict, the bookings were quite normal. But during festivals like Id, the bookings came down. Some days the bus carried just 15 passengers," a DTC official said.

According to the corporation, more than 3,000 Indians may have visited Lahore through this service.

It is not visa regulations but the stringent security checks that are bothering the travellers. Passengers who board the Lahore-bound bus have to undergo three layers of security checks at the Ambedkar Stadium Bus Terminus, from where the bus leaves. A posse of policemen guards the buses day and night and no one is allowed near them, especially after the Shiv Sena threatened to damage the vehicles. Security was further beefed up after the hijacking of the Indian Airlines aircraft in December.

The bus starts at 6am sharp with a heavy escort of police vehicles and reaches Lahore 12 hours later. The DTC official said the bus has never met with any accident or unsavoury incident in the last one year. "It has been a smooth ride so far," he told rediff.com

The only problem the DTC faces now is that the service is a liability for the corporation, which has been in the red for many years. DTC 's loss every year is estimated to be more than Rs 2,500 million and the high-security luxury bus has only added to its woes.

"Yes, the bus is making losses now because the number of people travelling in it has come down and also because of the high security we have to provide it all the way," Delhi Transport Minister Parvez Hashmi said.

But he said the bus would continue its ride as "the relationship between the peoples matters more than the growing costs of running the service".

He said the Delhi state government had actually wanted to celebrate the first anniversary of the service. "We had mooted a proposal to celebrate the event and sent it to the Union government. But we got no reply. It seems that after his so-called historic bus journey, Vajpayee has forgotten about the bus itself," Hashmi quipped.

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