Daily Times

The surprising interview of the prime minister’s national security advisor to an Indian TV channel has opened quite a can of worms. Yet one of the things that did come out of it, despite all the controversy expected from such an exchange, was the acceptance of Pakistan’s position that talks on all outstanding issues is the only way forward for the two countries. The host and very famous and rather balanced Indian journalist Karan Thapar, who was forced to depart from his own individual position on most aspects of Indian foreign policy for very obvious reasons, could not really rebut the claim that border and diplomatic tensions will only begin to subside when both sides get serious about negotiations.

The journalist was put in a rather awkward position. Everybody, at least within the media, knows that he’s one of those few brave soldiers of his kind left in India’s press who have openly questioned and criticised the Modi administration’s policies. That is why the interview, which revolved around foreign policy, forced him onto the back foot. For he knows only too well that presently Delhi’s relations with all its immediate neighbours are at an unprecedented low. And if Pakistan-India friction can hold back regional progress, even trade and groupings like SAARC, it shouldn’t really take an ace from Indian media to figure out what harm the kind of diplomatic breakdown that the Modi government has caused can do.

India will, at the end of the day, have to create an enabling environment for talks. There is no way the status quo can endure much longer. If leaving things as they are hasn’t improved anything at all in more than seven decades, there’s little chance of a sudden breakthrough at any time in the future. Besides, both countries have incredible youth bulges, record numbers of young people that have nothing to do with conflicts rooted deep in the past, that should be used for the benefit of the whole region, not to carry on stale cold wars. The time has come for the region to move forward and it is only India that is holding it back. The whole world noted, and duly appreciated, when Prime Minister Imran Khan offered the hand of friendship immediately after winning the election in 2018. And the world also saw how Delhi wasted that opportunity. Therefore it is for India now to accept the error of its ways and come round to talks. *