On Monday, this newspaper carried Pakistan columnist Salman Rashid's experiences of trying to get a visa to visit this country. It was truly an eye-opener. It's not just the various difficulties that seem to be wantonly strewn across the path of any man or woman entertaining a desire to visit India, it is the mindset that's objectionable in the extreme. Even to gain entry into the Indian HighCommission at Islamabad is a gamble. Those who queue up for their visas are first given numbers but it's only the luck of the draw which will entitle anyone to even make the interview grade. Rashid did not mince words to define the treatment that was meted out to him just because he professed a desire to meet his sister in Delhi. He called it the grossest violation of human rights. He rightly asks, ``Will Indian diplomats have the courage to subject British or American nationals to such demeaning treatment? Of course they wouldn't dare.'' There's ample justification for his anger. To decide entry on the basis of a lottery is not just diabolical, it is downright perverse. The fact that it's not a one-sided phenomenon doesn't make it any less objectionable. Rashid was careful to point out that he has heard many similar tales of what goes on at the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi. The same ugly mindset, the same Partition complex, the same barbed wire.

It's not as if ordinary people in both countries don'twant to cut through the fences and get on with their lives. After all, they've heard of the unification of East and West Germany and of the numerous other initiatives that have prompted countries once sworn to enmity to rise above their historical hatreds. They also know that there's much to be gained in reaching out to each other, not just through cultural exchanges but through trade and commerce. They may desire to change this reality but find themselves powerless to do so in the face of the numerous barriers set up by those who draw their power precisely from creating such divides. This is why the proposed bus service between the two countries kept being postponed. This is why, there can be no breakthrough over Siachen or Sir Creek. This is why the body of Toba Tek Singh will continue to lie on no-man's land, symbolising the intractable hatred between two nations divided by a common history.