Round The World

New Delhi, 16 February 2010

India-Pakistan Talks

BATTLE IT OUT ON TABLE, NOT BORDER

By Monish Tourangbam

Research Scholar, School of International Studies, JNU

The India-Pakistan talks should continue as planned. The Pune blast will cast a shadow on the upcoming talks but the Government is confident that the situation will allow to derail the dialogue process. Clearly, the terror networks cannot be made to dictate the trajectory of foreign policy decisions of a sovereign country, but at the same time, developing situation should give new dimensions to the nature of the talks. More so, as the talks cannot be a lame show of half-hearted smiles and hand-shakes without practical progress.

The blast coming just ahead of the proposed talks cannot be a mere coincidence. Definitely, sinister efforts are being made to derail the dialogue process and the blast was probably meant to signal ire against any prospect of a rapprochement between India and Pakistan. The UPA  Government has time and again emphasized that another terrorist attack on Indian soil after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks would not be taken lightly. Such assertions make the upcoming talks a crucial test for New Delhi’s resolve to fight terrorism. Focus should be on extracting commitments from Islamabad to fight anti-India activities emanating from its soil.

The Foreign Secretaries of both the countries are scheduled to meet in New Delhi on February 25, the first since diplomatic ties were broken by India after 26/11. In recent times, the Pakistani government has undertaken some major offensives against insurgents in the Swat valley and South Waziristan. But it has been rather reluctant to take any sincere action against the sinister groups that have been engaging in anti-India activities in collusion with the Pakistani military intelligence.

The Pakistani military still eyes India as its number one enemy, which is bent upon bringing down the Pakistani State. Keeping in view the dilly-dallying tactics of Islamabad in dealing with the perpetrators of the heinous crime, New Delhi had snapped diplomatic ties. It suspended any prospects of dialogue as long as the Pakistani side did not help India bring to book the terrorists behind the carnage that shook the Indian security with its boldness and the violence.

But, cutting off ties has not paid dividends for New Delhi and the absence of official channels has further negated chances of putting pressures on the Pakistani civilian government.  There is cynicism and apprehensions regarding the outcome of the talks. The debate is whether the time is ripe to open the dialogue process unless Islamabad takes some concrete actions to curb these terrorist activities. Some analysts have commented that the resumption of the dialogue process would not only show the lack of resolve in India but embolden terror networks to carry out more such strikes. However, New Delhi cannot afford to be static. It should be dynamic in adapting to the changes. 

More than a year of closing bridges with the troublesome neighbour has not really changed the situation and has created more roadblocks for India. While it should emphasize and never waver from its resolve to fight terror in all forms, the channels of talks and engagements must be kept open so as to keep itself abreast of the positions of Islamabad. This apart, it should keep looking for creating fresh openings to take conflict resolution to the next level. The nature of the conflicts between India and Pakistan is rooted in our common past and the developments have inextricably bound us in this mess.  The issues are complicated and often inter-linked, one failure often snowballing to hurt composite relations. But, incremental steps toward resolution of conflicts should not be sacrificed at the altar of the sinister campaign of some diabolical groups, who seek to divert the course of normalization.

The Opposition in India has adamantly stood against talking to Pakistan in the absence of any substantial promise to curb terror attacks against it. In the aftermath of the Pune blast, the critical opinions against India’s decision to talk would increase. While at the outset, the Pune incident might seem to provide more reasons for calling off the dialogue process, pragmatism would call for a different approach. Sentimentality and nationalist outburst should not dictate our foreign policy decision-making.

In fact, the new situation demands a fresh look at how we should deal with a difficult neighbour like Pakistan, because the absence of talks is not going to stop another 26/11 from recurring. To stop such a catastrophe from striking again, all options should be kept on the table and a judicious mix of hard and soft diplomacy should be deployed. By no means is India a trigger-happy nation and this is largely evident from its restraint response to devastating terror attacks. A more belligerent India would have easily drawn the region into a major conflict.

But India’s responsible attitude to such situations is not meant to be taken for granted and this  should be made amply clear to the opposite side on the dialogue table.  India’s stance towards terrorism and regional cooperation should be made to register with the international community. Pakistan is no doubt, an important State as far as the situation in Afghanistan is concerned but at the same time the international community should be aware of New Delhi’s security concerns and not use a different lens when it comes to assessing the impact of terrorism on India.

The upcoming talks is an opportunity and a challenge to wheel the stalled process and at the same time, remind Islamabad that confidence building and engineering peace need two hands ready to make compromises and concessions. The Opposition in Delhi at this juncture should not get down to the level of earning brownie points out of such a situation. In the wake of the Pune attacks, we have all the more responsibility to present a united view and use the upcoming talks as a platform to show that India is magnanimous and mature enough to come to the dialogue table with a country still not committed to fight the anti-India “terror womb” within its borders.

Terrorism and its menace is something that every government in India, irrespective of the political party, has grappled with and it is high time we have a bipartisan attitude when it comes to tackling this issue. As a democratic country, differences of opinion and analyses should lead to a healthy internal debate but this should not be coloured by motives to earn cheap political dividends.

The trajectory of India-Pakistan relations can be compared to a messy divorce wherein the couple has a lot of issues to be settled. It will be stating the obvious to say that any effort to reconcile the differences between the two countries will always be excruciating and frustrating often, but it is imperative to keep channels of communication open and not be deterred by the all too expected hiccups and roadblocks. There are enough battles to be fought over a host of issues but it will augur well for both if these battles were fought over the negotiating table and not on the border.--INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)