Daily Times

“In 1947 India and Pakistan were born to conflict.” This is the first line on the flap and gist of the latest book by Stanley Wolport, India-Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation. His assessment is correct because these two countries have a jeremiad of problems since independence, and instead of decreasing, the list has increased over the years. They have failed to resolve even a single contentious issue between them. It is not that they have not tried to sort out their problems; they have, but their structured diplomacy has failed to achieve any breakthrough .The reasons for it are numerous — some are spurious while others are stupid. Now the question arises: are people from the two countries being cursed to continue with this sort of relationship? The answer is, no they are not. They deserve a better relationship, peace and economic prosperity. To achieve all that, there is a need to change attitudes, to learn the art of making compromises, to be accommodating to each other’s demands and finally, to try for new means to achieve some breakthrough, because the older ones have become obsolete. Because of the bureaucratic juggernaut, even simple things have become complex and complicated.

Following in the footsteps of various successful business deals, which are made on the golf course or in ballrooms, the heads of state, during meetings of multilateral forums, hold informal discussions and do not shy away from taking political decisions. Today, the nature of diplomacy has transformed. In this new form of diplomacy, the primary focus is upon engaging people from other countries through various means rather than holding closed-door meetings with representatives of the state. People are taking initiatives and proving themselves as ambassadors of their own respective countries in establishing relationships with citizens of other countries. This practice of new diplomacy has shown tremendous results in improving the relationships between countries in various parts of the world, but has not been very successful in improving ties between India and Pakistan, though various such steps have been taken.

Pakistani President Zardari’s personal-religious visit to India was one such informal event, where during his visit to Gharib Nawaz at Ajmer Sharif, he had lunch with the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. His interior minister, family members and other delegates accompanied him. Earlier also, leaders from the two countries have met informally on the sidelines of various multilateral forums. The last one was in March this year when Dr Singh met Mr Gilani in Seoul during the Nuclear Security Summit. Only once, when the leaders of the two states met informally on the sidelines of the NAM meeting in Havana in 2006, did they utilise the opportunity and explored the possibility of setting up of a Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism (JATM). The step was positive but somehow could not come to fruition due to various old reasons and bureaucratic excuses narrated by both countries.

During their lunch, PM Singh offered technical assistance to rescue the 124 Pakistani soldiers who, on the morning of President Zardari’s visit to India, became the unfortunate victims of an avalanche in Siachen. This glacier turned into a battlefield in the 1980s; since then its hostile climate has claimed many lives and injured hundreds of soldiers from both countries. The two countries have held many rounds of talk over the issue of de-militarisation of Siachen, but unfortunately, nothing has been achieved from those structured dialogues. Many peace-loving Indians and Pakistanis have talked about turning it into a peace park or a zoological park. Gopal Krishna has made one such informal or people-oriented appeal on the popular Indian website Bargad.org.

PM Singh, during his lunch with President Zardari, also raised the issue of Hafiz Saeed, who has been pronounced by India as the brain behind the 26/11 Mumbai carnage. He is like a one-man army who through his hate speeches and sacrilegious acts has successfully derailed many efforts to improve the bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan. Earlier he declared ‘water jihad’ against India; now he is all out to oppose the granting of MFN status by Pakistan to India. Allegedly, he has not even spared his own country, and his gun and bomb-carrying disciples have targeted many places, claiming the lives of many innocent Pakistani citizens. Now the USA has declared a $ 10 million bounty on his head. Many in Pakistan see it as an attack on their sovereignty. The issue is not whether he should be handed over to the US or India, but the concern is about the ideology he is propagating. Pakistan has to understand this and must take appropriate action. It has already made a mistake in the past by providing training to Islamic radicals, the ill consequences of which it is facing today.

Finally, informal meetings and the practice of new public diplomacy will surely help in setting up a stage for positive result-oriented formal meetings between the leaders of India and Pakistan. Let us hope those informal meetings and people’s initiatives to establish peace will keep the border calm and tensions under control.

The writer is a PhD student at the South Asian Studies School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He can be reached at amitranjan.jnu@gmail.com