This week, two Opinions share the honour of being Open and True:

1. Farrukh Saleem's 'Time to Strike a Deal is Now'

Time is on India’s side. Economic disparity between India and Pakistan is going to be much greater a few years down the road than it is today. India’s military-strategic superiority is going to be much greater a few years down the road than it is today. Using America’s leverage in the interest of Pakistan may be possible now it surely won’t be a few years down the road. The overall power-gap is going to be much wider a few years down the road than it is today. Our negotiating position, with the passage of time, is bound to weaken not strengthen. Time to strike a deal with India is now.

Equally fraught with danger is the mushy sentimentalism that seems to accompany Vajpayee's bid to effect a rapprochement with Pakistan. What the prime minister does or does not achieve during his visit to Islamabad is important. However, it is monstrously stupid to imagine that a neighbour whose existence is premised on unwavering hostility to India and its civilisation is going to have an overnight change of heart. Indians may believe that the future of South Asia will be built on economics and the establishment of a South Asia free trade regime is a step in that direction. But in Pakistan where jihad is a motivating force, this is a minority view that is not shared by the divergent custodians of the Islamic state. There is a naive Indian view that those across the border are just like us. This may have been true a century ago but the past 50 years has witnessed a revolutionary change in the mindset of Pakistan.

Vajpayee was right to alert the country of this formidable obstacle before he left for Islamabad. Unfortunately, the warning was drowned in another burst of irrational exuberance. Of course Vajpayee was right to interact with General Musharraf and other important Pakistani decision-makers. Anything else would have been plain discourteous and unbecoming of a leader of his stature. Of course he shouldn 't miss out on an important opportunity to engage with the Pakistani establishment. Such moves would not only be courteous but pragmatic. But to believe that the exchange of pleasantries will bring down the level of terrorism is to tempt fate. Pakistan is a signatory to most of the international agreements against terrorism. Has that made the slightest difference to how the Pakistani state operates on the ground?