Vajpayee's initiatives for peace with Pakistan

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure as the prime minister was eventful. The Vajpayee government decided to declare to the world India's nuclear capabilities with Pokhran-II in 1998.

He made attempts to establish peace with Pakistan by travelling in a bus to Lahore. However, his peace initiatives were met with Pakistani incursions that led to the Kargil war in 1999. The war caused heavy losses for Pakistan, which then turned to the US seeking its help to bring an end to the military conflict.

The Kargil misadventure by Pakistan did not deter Vajpayee from inviting the man, who is held responsible for it, for peace talks. The then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was invited to the Agra Summit, which failed for reasons not publicly known. But Vajpayee succeeded in getting a ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan signed in 2003. It still forms the bottomline of peace between India and Pakistan