When Vajpayee rejected Clinton's offer to talk over Kargil war: Till Pakistan had a 'single inch of our land...'

“You can change friends, but not neighbours.”

— Atal Bihari Vajpayee

The above-mentioned words by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former Indian prime minister and late leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), will resonate well with our neighbouring nation, Pakistan. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, striking nine terror sites in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan. This was the response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in which 26 people - mostly Indian Hindu tourists- were killed.

On May 10, a ceasefire was announced. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said India and Pakistan reached an agreement to halt hostilities. But Pakistan could not stand by its words, as within hours, the country violated the ceasefire.

The escalated tensions are now mading many people recall the era of Vajpayee and his stance on the relationship with Pakistan during the Kargil war in 1999.

The Kargil War - 1999

The Kargil War of May 1999 took place when Pakistan violated the ceasefire. The Line of Control (LoC) ceasefire agreement, which was part of the Simla Agreement of 1972, was breached when Pakistani soldiers and militants infiltrated Indian positions in the Kargil sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

The infiltration began in early May 1999, though planning and movement had started earlier, around late 1998. When Indian soldiers vacated the strategic heights in the Dras, Kargil, and Batalik sectors in winter, Pakistani forces, disguised as militants, occupied those areas. India launched Operation Vijay to evict the intruders and successfully regained its positions.

After this, the US under Bill Clinton intervened to prevent any further escalation between the two nuclear-armed adversaries.

The US intervention

Clinton held a meeting with the then-prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, in Washington. The US refused any sort of mediation or support to Sharif unless Pakistan withdrew unconditionally from the LoC.

India refused Clinton's suggestion for negotiation with Pakistan and stood firm on its stance of national security.

Clinton feared that a nuclear war could happen amid speculation that India would respond with full force if Pakistan deployed nuclear weapons.

The then-US president called Vajpayee on July 2, 1999, during which the then Indian PM refused to negotiate under the threat of aggression.

Bruce Riedel, the then Special Assistant to the US president, revealed what Clinton told Sharif in a call.

"The President repeated his caution, 'Come only if you are ready to withdraw, I can't help you if you are not ready to pull back, '" Riedel recalled Clinton as saying.

'I was under no pressure'

After the Kargil war, Vajpayee criticised the then-leader of the opposition, Sonia Gandhi, in Parliament for accusing him of being pressurised by Clinton.

"During the Kargil war, Clinton called me and said that the Pakistan prime minister is here (in the US) and invited me to the US to talk to him," Vajpayee said.

"So I did not go. I was under no pressure," he added.

He said that he told Clinton India would not talk to the Pakistani leader as long as that country had even a "single inch of our land".