There is really no sense blaming the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu for the mess that this regional body is in. SAARC is us. It is the lowest common denominator of our red-tape, lack of transparency, our debilitating fatalism. It is a symbol of our collective failures to manage our own countries.

Maldivian and Sri Lankan delegates flew to Kathmandu this week via Bangkok and Singapore. To fly from one SAARC member country to another SAARC member country they went all the way to the edge of the Pacific. Maybe the dips are amassing frequent flyer miles, but you can't blame them when our governments have made it as difficult as possible to fly within our own region. The Delhi-Colombo flight is at 3AM. The most convenient connection between Delhi and Dhaka used to be on British Airways. And now PIA can't fly delegates to the summit because India has suspended overflights. If air connections were bad, you should try land and rail links. Actually, you can't. There aren't any.

So, in Kathmandu this week let's not make grandiose plans for SAPTA or a free-trade area. Let's just make South Asia a free-travel area. After that, other things may fall into place.