Talk to Resolve Issues

Talks between India and Pakistan continue to be uncertain. Though the two countries have mutually deferred the foreign secretary level dialogue to a “very near future”, New Delhi is closely monitoring the progress on Pakistan’s investigation into the Pathankot attack to take the call on the fresh dates. Foreign Secretary level talks are crucial to chalk out the modalities of resumption of the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue process and the level of interaction in various Working Groups. This dialogue includes all the subjects of the previous Composite Dialogue, with some additions, including terrorism and Kashmir.   Though Pakistan has moved fast to detain some suspects including the leader of the outlawed militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad  Maulana Masood Azhar, India isn’t impressed  Pakistan authorities have said that Azhar is in “protective custody”.  India has welcomed Azhar’s detention but is sceptical about the action against him.

The media in India has pointed out the fate of the case about 2008 Mumbai attack. Commentators are saying that even eight years after the Mumbai attack, Islamabad has yet to convict anybody for the atrocity. Though Hafiz Saeed was arrested for some time, he was later let off by the courts. With Azhar’s possible arrest in Pathankot attack case, the same process is apprehended to start all over again.  Moreover, Azhar Masood is also seen as the front man for an attack enjoying institutional support from either Pakistan Army or the ISI, This, in Indian perception, raises serious questions about the credibility of a trial against the alleged masterminds behind the Pathankot attack. This raises thus the questions over the continuation of the talks with Islamabad. The emerging consensus in India is that the dialogue with Pakistan should be held but only to discuss terrorism.

Former home minister P Chidambaram in his column in The Indian Express has argued that India should talk on matters that are of immediate and grave concern to the country: “not respecting the LoC and the International Border, terrorism, intrusions, covert support to Indian jihadis”. He also wants talks on the issues “that will promote the economic interests of India such as trade, tourism and visits of academics and scholars”. 

But such an approach to the talks will hardly serve the purpose. For the cause of the lingering confrontation between the countries which, in turn, has resulted in the bloodshed is the unresolved long-standing political issues like Kashmir. Much like there is a consensus on the  terrorism-centric bilateral talks in India, in Pakistan there is a unanimity on the talks geared to resolve political issues. The best way to go about the process is thus to follow the two tracks simultaneously. The two countries already have a successful experiment in the Musharraf-Vajpayee and later Musharraf-Manmohan Singh peace process which continued through 2002-07. The dialogue at the time had almost culminated in the resolution of Kashmir, an issue that has been the fundamental source of their bitterness. So, New Delhi can’t privilege its own priorities in the dialogue. Both countries have to work together and pursue an engagement whose objective is to resolve issues, not extract short term concessions. As the past 68 years would tell us, this kind of attitude has taken us nowhere. Hence the need for a fundamental shift in the approach. The  fresh  effort  at reconciliation would greatly benefit if it is pursued for its own lofty end and as far  as  reasonably  possible  kept  undistracted  by  the  efforts  to  derail  it.  For  not  only Kashmir but also India and Pakistan depends on this process to put the ghosts of Partition to rest and also to usher  in an era of peace and prosperity.

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