It was extraordinary, and not a little curious, to see the young Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, stand right behind Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, his father, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the leaders of India and Pakistan emerged from their conversation to address the assembled media at 7, Race Course Road.
This gives rise to the conjecture here whether introducing the heir to the Bhutto-Zardari political mantle to India’s top political leaders was the real, although unspoken, purpose of President Zardari’s day-trip to India, a kind of debut for the son, a coming of age party.
It is another matter that the visit went off nicely as it was expected to, and indeed did serve to give the impression all round that India-Pakistan relations have got off the roller-coaster for now, although they shall remain troubled unless India finds satisfaction on the terrorism issue, in particular the nabbing and punishing of those who masterminded the Mumbai terror assault of November 2008.
No one here is complaining about Bilawal joining his father for the visit, quite the contrary. He cut a fine figure, and to his credit managed to skip the sartorial trend of the sub-continental elites, sporting figures, filmstars, and trendy politicians, of showing off a fancy pair of shades, although the sun was sharp. That was nice, and everyone got a good look at the young Pakistan People’s Party leader.
And yet, his public positioning right behind the two top leaders at their media interaction occasioned surprise. The protocol book wouldn’t recommend this. Even being the co-chairman of PPP, along with his President dad, would not entitle him to that spot with the head of state and the head of government.
Given the uncertainties of public life in Pakistan, the Bhuttos have traditionally maintained good rapport with India’s political leadership even when they have been ranged as adversaries. In Indira Gandhi’s day, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, Benazir’s younger brother (who would later be killed outside his own home when she was PM, and whose poet-writer daughter Fatima is estranged from the late Benazir and her family), once spent some time incognito in New Delhi’s Paharganj when the Zia dictatorship flourished in Pakistan.