We are entering into the sixth week after the Mumbai carnage and a New Year has come. There have been belied expectations leading to frustration. There was a point when war seemed a real possibility.

Thanks to a firm assurance by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that War is not an option, the climate is relatively cool.  

There are four pillars that delineate the parameters within which we must conduct our efforts. War is no solution and as such must not be waged. Terrorism has to be rooted out from Pakistani soil. Democracy in Pakistan has to get firmly established and Military takeovers become history. It is now time to bring permanent peace and stability there.  

As far as War is concerned, irrespective of what some hawks may demand, war cannot be an option. When India became nuclear so did Pakistan and it came at par with us. We lost the advantage of our superiority in conventional warfare.

 Terrorism is the seminal issue that has to be addressed. It has become an international demand. Even the Pakistanis are victims of it. We should make it the focal one at present and give it the highest priority. India cannot do this individually.

It has to be a collective and International effort. Mumbai has paid a very heavy price. The sacrifices of the Mumbaikars have brought into sharp relief the imperativeness of completely destroying terrorism manating from Pakistan .

The USA, Britain, Russia, the European Union, the UN Security Council have all taken this up with the Pakistani authorities. In this regard even China has come on board even though on Indo-Pak matters it has a clear softness for Pakistan.

We have to keep up relentless efforts to see that other matters do not distract the major powers and the Security Council. Pakistan has to be made to act. The Civilian Government is committed to it. It is clear that the Army alone can deliver.

Without their genuine involvement nothing will happen. It is here that ultimatums need to be given. Pakistan should show some tangible results. They should abandon their withdrawal mode.

This is where the USA, Britain and the UN Institutions can be most effective as they have the levers. Covert diplomatic pressures should be given more space.

They are working and results, meager as they be, are emerging. However if nothing happens in the near future, there are two lethal levers that would need to be applied.

The first is the economic one. Even the Apartheid Regime in South Africa had to succumb to it. The second is the military one. Supplies of arms aid, spares and new military supplies might need to be suspended. There is as such no shortage of measures.  

Our past experience has been that a Civilian Governments are invariably more difficult to deal with. A Dictator could deliver. Times have changed. I believe that Democracy is now our best bet. The elected reflect public opinion.

And public opinion is now for the end of confrontation and resort to cooperation. As one young Pakistani journalist told me when I visited Pakistan as Foreign Secretary several years ago, ' Pakistanis are taught in schools that India is an enemy.

Books preach hatred. We have been fighting wars against each other. Why can we not set aside guns and bullets and wage a war between us as to who is able to build more cement plants and factories? Who provides more employment, more schools, more hospitals?'

This was rare at that time but is today a sentiment shared by the majority. Further, it is not in anyone's interest to see a splintered Pakistan. We want unity and stability in Pakistan. We want a responsible Government in Pakistan. Both want to work for providing our peoples a better quality of life.

 The time has now come to take some bold steps in respect of Kashmir. No magic solution can be found. Let us look into the past.  

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto had signed an agreement in Shimla after the 1971 War.  

There is a Government in Delhi led by Mrs. Gandhi's party. The President of Pakistan is the son-in-law of Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto. Let both Governments jointly commit themselves to irrevocably adhere to the letter and spirit of the Shimla agreement. This should be noted and endorsed by the Security Council in a Resolution.

 If the Security Council can endorse it then it means that all the old Resolutions become redundant. This would be the benchmark. Secondly it wiuld be accepted that the matter is bilateral and to be settled between the two parties only. Thirdly that there would be no armed conflict but only doialogue.

 The timing of when to take it up, how to do so etc is for the Government of India. to decide.

 We have moved a long way in our Confidence Building Measures. Let the LOC become a border of peace and tranquility. Let the peoples of J&K interact with each other freely.

 No more of hostile acts, lives lost and property destroyed. The peoples of J&K have a right to start enjoying the three Ps, a life of Peace Progress and Prosperity. This will itself remove a major motivator for acts of terror.

 It would suit the interests of the USA and Britain as Pakistan could then concentrate, without distraction, on the problem of Afghanistan.

 This is what would be historic and a precursor to the type of 21st Century we would like to see our future generations live in.

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