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| All too often in the past, the two have flattered only to deceive. The last fling began with a friendship bus journey by Prime Minister Vajpayee to Lahore in February 1999 and ended with the two countries almost going to war two years ago. |
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| In fact, they did fight a mini-war in the summer of 1999 at Kargil, barely three months after Mr Vajpayee had returned from Lahore. |
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| And in December 2001, there was the terrorist attack on Parliament as well, not to mention the one a few months earlier on the legislature building in Srinagar and scores of other terrorist atrocities. |
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| That such a recent history of bad blood is being so quickly reversed is at least a matter of some surprise, if not yet of hope. |
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| That said, only those with a vested interest in a state of permanent but undeclared war would fail to keep his or her fingers crossed. The nuclearisation of the two is reason enough for moving towards some semblance of normalcy. |
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Thanks to intense pressure from the
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