It is better that a settlement comes when the BJP is in power. Under any other regime, the BJP will interpret any concession on Kashmir as 'anti-national' A gesture, by definition, is a rough means of communication.
Words are absent but the import of the message is clear.
It is like a tide which taken at the right time leads on to the future. India made such a gesture which Pakistan failed to reciprocate. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in Parliament the other day that the complexion of rule in Pakistan did not matter and that India was willing to hold talks with it, provided Pakistan stopped cross-border militancy. He even corrected his minister of state for Foreign Affairs, Ajit Panja, who had told a member in the Rajya Sabha that New Delhi would have no dialogue with Pakistan so long as democracy was not restored there. Vajpayee said while he would like democracy to prevail all over the world, the fact that Pakistan was ruled by a military dictatorship would not bar his government having talks with it.