Friendly Ties With Pakistan: A Distant Dream?

After the new government took over the reins in New Delhi, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited the leaders of SAARC countries including Pakistan to his swearing-in ceremony. This act was more of a symbolic gesture to send a message to the world at large that the new government in Delhi is looking to prioritise its relationship with its immediate neighbours that have been anything but rosy in the recent past. Political pundits had their own take on this with many dubbing it as some sort of ‘diplomatic-coup’ from the new PM’s side.

Be that as it may, one thing is indisputably true: India can not become a major player on the world stage unless and until it plays a more significant role in its own backyard (read: South Asia) commensurate with its power, both economically and militarily. This part of the world is one of the least developed areas on the planet where all types of elements inimical to a standard quality of life are prevalent: chronic poverty, large-scale unemployment, high illiteracy levels, religious bigotry, scourge of extremism et al. It is against this backdrop that India has to tread the path to economic and social prosperity. But in doing so, it would have to play a much bigger role in the region than it currently does. For all of this to happen, India must be seen as a willing partner by its neighbors that commands trust and co-operation of its smaller counterparts. And, that can come only through dialogue and engagements at different levels.

To the credit of the new government, since it has come to the office, it has undertaken substantive steps in strengthening its relationships with its immediate neighbors starting with the premier Narendra Modi’s visits to Bhutan and Nepal and other high-level talks with other countries at different levels. Probably, the most awaited diplomatic manoeuvre that was to come—a foreign-secretary level dialogue between India and Pakistan in Islamabad scheduled for August 25 this year. This arrangement was agreed upon by PM Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in May in a bid to break the stalemate in the bilateral dialogue process.

As luck would have it, the proposed dialogue was cancelled over a meeting by Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit with Kashmiri separatist leaders ‘for consultations’ ahead of the talks. India said it had expressed its displeasure in ‘clear and unambiguous terms’ to the envoy even before he was to meet the separatist leaders. The envoy went ahead and chose to ignore the warnings from New Delhi. Taking strong objection over the issue, the Indian government called-off the proposed dialogue between foreign secretaries of the two countries in Islamabad.

Now that incident can be broadly looked upon from two perspectives. One is India’s tough message to Pakistan that its meddling with India’s internal affairs is unacceptable and unwarranted for, and the other message that goes out is that both the countries are not sincere enough in their approach toward normalizing their strained relations with each other.
On a closer look, however, at the internal political crisis in Pakistan together with repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistani border forces in days leading up to the talks, and even more stepped-up firing and shelling from across the border following the cancellation of the talks, seem to suggest that India did the right thing, albeit in disguise some would say. It can be safely assumed that nothing substantive could have come out of the talks given that Pakistani PM is himself preoccupied with saving his own seat and government from unyielding protesters being led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and his ally, cleric Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri. They vociferously demand that the PM resigns and fresh elections be held and nothing less over alleged rigging in the General Elections that took place in 2013 in which his party swept to power on the national scene.

Whatever, firing and talks cannot co-exist and no self-respecting government would allow that. For a lasting peace, Pakistan would have to completely dispense with its malicious designs against Indian state. Then only we can have a peaceful resolution to Kashmir issue: a flashpoint of many wars between the two countries both overt and covert and various other things. For now it all seems utopian. Talks are only a step in that direction. One can only hope that both the countries come together to the talking-table in a true spirit of bilateral engagement as early as possible.