India, May 11 -- In February 1999, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee crossed the Attari border with a phalanx of stars and celebrities on the inaugural Delhi-Lahore bus service. The bus, painted in the colours of both nations, rolled into Lahore where then Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif welcomed the delegation. Against the backdrop of Mughal-era monuments, the two leaders signed a declaration that seemed to transcend the bitter history of Partition.

The bonhomie was short-lived. In the summer of that year, shepherds tipped off Indian forces that Pakistani soldiers had infiltrated into Kargil and occupied strategic mountains, triggering a full-blown conflict a year after both countries acquired nuclear capabilities.

Two years later, rinse a...