Where Musharraf, Sharif see eye to eye

By K.K. Katyal

NEW DELHI, JUNE 27. There is at least one matter on which the present Pakistani President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and the former Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, were on the same wave length. That relates to India, to the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, to his poetry - to be specific, to his poem, We will not let war take place.

Gen. Musharraf pointedly referred to it, according to a report from Islamabad, at his meeting with Pakistani editors yesterday, although he was not sure whether this or another poem, with harsh words, represented the true personality of Mr. Vajpayee.

During the Prime Minister's journey to Lahore in February 1999, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, speaking at a banquet, recited the no-war verse and requested the visiting dignitary to narrate the whole poem, with the refrain ``We will not let war take place'' (Jang nah hone dainge). Mr. Sharif added a well-rhymed line of his own - ``We will not let the dialogue to be meaningless (Muzakarat ko beyrang nah hone dainge).

Here is a free rendering of four Hindi stanzas of poet Vajpayee:

India and Pakistan have to co-exist as neighbours/ Amity or animosity - we have to experience together/ We fought three wars - a costly bargain/ Russian bomb or American, it sheds blood/ We won't let our children experience what we went through/ We will not let war take place/ Those who sit over piles of arms/ Who talk of peace but have bombs under their sleeves/ Play a game of duplicity/ Din into the merchants of coffins/ The world has seen their true face/ We will not let their tricks, their designs work/ Won't let war take place.

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