Daily Times

Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is scheduled to visit Pakistan in the first week of March this year. It is a big development after almost eight months of a standstill situation in bilateral talks between the two nuclear nations of the subcontinent. Last year, Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s visit to India at the oath taking ceremony of PM Modi was considered to be a big breakthrough for good relations between Pakistan and India. At the end of the meeting between the two premiers, both had agreed to start “a new era of bilateral relations”. However, the Indian leadership showed severe reservations over the Hurriyet leaders’ meeting with Mr Salman Bashir, the then Pakistani high commissioner in India and foreign secretary level talks between India and Pakistan were cancelled in August 2014.

Now, both foreign secretaries will talk on all issues including Kashmir. It is assumed that the visit will be a foundation for reaching an agreement to resolve all pending issues. Ahead of Mr S Subrahmanyam’s visit, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin has said that India is ready to talk with Pakistan on all issues including the Kashmir issue in accordance with the Simla Agreement.

Both Pakistan and India can resolve all their pending issues; what they need is political will, which is lacking, especially on India’s part. If we talk about the Pakistani civilian leadership, they want normalisation of relations with India. For instance, it was an unusual step by PM Nawaz Sharif to go to PM Modi’s oath taking ceremony and give him gifts. But afterwards, India cancelled the secretary level talks and an escalation of hostilities was seen on the Line of Control (LoC).

India’s PM Narendra Modi has appeared to be a strong premier compared to former PM Dr Manmohan Singh and can take strong decisions. Even if Arvind Kejriwal has won the elections in Delhi, PM Modi still enjoys a majorityin parliament. He can even take decisions singlehandedly, and he should. PM Modi should stop the Indian army from carrying out LoC and Working Boundary (WB) violations, which are underway and have been so since October last year, with another escalation being seen currently. It is the Indian army’s aggression that during his visit to Sialkot made the Pakistan Army Chief Raheel Sharif warn the Indian army against LoC and WB violations. The Army chief said, “Let there be no doubt that any provocation along the LOC and Working Boundary will meet a befitting response.”

The civilian leaderships of both countries will have to take a decision if they want a peaceful solution of Kashmir. All other issues including Siachin and Sir Creek are negotiable. Even under the fourth round of the composite dialogue in 2007, both countries exchanged maps on the Sir Creek issue (the 96-kilometre estuary in the Rann of Kutch separating India’s Gujarat from Sindh). Many events in the past indicate that both countries have tried to normalise their relations, like the Liaquat-Nehru Pact, Simla Agreement, Lahore Declaration, and the Musharraf-Vajpayee joint statement at the end of the 12th SAARC Summit in 2004. Foreign affairs experts are of the view that the problem lies with the Indian leadership.

India is a large country but it has a very small heart. Being an emerging world economy, it should behave appropriately. Recently, in an interview, talking to the writer on Pak-India relations, Dr Tahir Amin, a prominent Pakistani professor of Political Science and Director National Institute of Pakistan Studies (NIPS), Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, recalled an incident in the 1980s: “Once General Ziaul Haq (late) told him that he (General Zia) and Ms Indira Ghandi (then Indian PM) were once together and Indonesian President Suharto was also present. General Zia asked the Indonesian president how the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could become an effective body like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is very successful. The Indonesian president’s reply was quite interesting. The Indonesian president said, “Indonesia is a large country and also large hearted as well. On the other hand, India is a big country but with a very small heart.” Laughingly he said, “SAARC’s success is linked with India’s graciousness.”

Pakistan and India need to normalise their relations, which will ultimately be beneficial for them and for the region. The arms race is continuing and both spend a huge amount of their budget for enhancing defence capabilities. Nonetheless, in this modern age, nuclear war between the two is unlikely but small skirmishes cannot be thrust aside. Pakistan and India cannot afford a nuclear flashpoint; nuclear war means full destruction. There is no room for mistakes. Recently, US Secretary of State John Kerry has also appealed to both nuclear powers to normalise their “working relations”. One hopes the visit of Foreign Secretary Mr S Jaishankar will be a fruitful one and a step forward for normalisation of ties between Pakistan and India.

The writer is a government servant and a freelance
columnist. He tweets @irfanchaudhri and can be
reached at irfanchaudhri@gmail.com