In a first statement of such significance on Indias relations with Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the purpose of talks with Pakistan is to try and turn course of history. Modi rightly said there will be many challenges and barriers on the path. But the effort is worth it because the peace dividends are huge and the future of our children is at stake, PM said while speaking to Indias top military commanders on board the countrys largest aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. He further said that Indias neighbourhood is most critical to its future and the place in the world. Significantly, PM said that India will aim to address outstanding issues, maintain stability on the border and develop greater mutual understanding and trust in our overlapping neighbourhood.
If anything, the PMs statements lend the purposefulness to the resumed dialogue process between India and Pakistan, otherwise always tentative and uncertain in nature. And with Modi talking of turning the course of history, the people have every reason to take him seriously. Here is a Prime Minister, who enjoys absolute majority in the parliament and is the strongest since Indira Gandhi and thus is eminently poised to make bold decisions. And if he has finally decided to start a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan, one would expect that he means business. For now, however, PMs constructive statements have changed the atmospherics for the good. They are a throwback to the important statements on India-Pakistan relations issued by his two immediate predecessors Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In May 2003 Vajpayee had told the parliament that his talks with Pakistan will be decisive. “This is a new beginning. We don’t want to forget the past, but we don’t want to remain slaves of the past,” Vajpayee had said.
Vajpayee had also talked of path of humanity to obviate the need for Kashmiri separatists to hold dialogue within the ambit of constitution of India. Similarly Manmohan Singh who took over as Prime Minister after Vajpayee talked of breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul. And Singh meant every word of it as his government was part of a promising 2003-07 peace process which was at the threshold of a solution to Kashmir when Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf lost his grip on power. However, the ground covered by Singh and Musharraf is there for the two countries to build upon and lead to a logical conclusion. On his way out in May 2014, Singh had personally handed over the files recording unsigned documents exchanged by the two sides on draft framework agreement over Kashmir to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now that the two countries are back to talking again, we can only expect them to take forward the good work done by their predecessors during the last decade.
Over the past eight years, the neighbours have struggled to get the dialogue back on track. Singhs second term saw a drift in Indias Pakistan policy. Even Modi with all his political capital has struggled to restore the engagement. Now after the dramatic meeting between NSAs at Bangkok, suddenly everything seems to have fallen into place. With Modi scheduled to travel to Pakistan next year to attend SAARC summit, there is every hope that the talks will sustain. Here is hoping that this time they end up achieving the breakthrough on Kashmir.
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