India Pakistan Talks

Nuktacheen hai gham-e-dil usko sunaye naa baney
Kya baney baat jahan baat bataye naa baney

The cogitations of my heart are so convoluted, how can I then explain them to my protagonist;
How can I structure a harmonious relationship when the very impulses and motivations for the relationship

are not there


One of India’s former foreign secretaries used the above phrases to define India-Pakistan talks in the 1980s and they seem valid even today. India and Pakistan are to have Foreign Minister and Foreign Secretary level talks starting May 20 in Islamabad. It is time to once again look at the chessboard and see what has changed and what has remained the same.

What has changed is that Pakistan has a democratic government in power which has reiterated its desire to hold talks with India on all issues, including Kashmir. What has remained the same is the military-intelligence establishment in Pakistan which still holds the final authority over foreign and defense policies, and especially over the Kashmir policy.

There are many principles which underlie any nation’s foreign policy and the same is true of Pakistan. However, the one key underlying factor is its sense of existential threat from a larger neighbor India. Its security, defense and foreign policies have been framed to a large extent by this fear. The relatively meager resources Pakistan received at Partition, the refugee crisis and the communal riots and the war with India over Kashmir in 1947 all created a sense of mistrust and insecurity which have shaped Pakistan’s foreign and defense policies to this day.

Pakistan will have to deal with its insecurities to a large extent and solve its problems but India can play a role in helping Pakistan. Just as during the 1930s-40s if the Congress leadership had been a bit less complacent about the fears and insecurities of the Indian Muslim elite which were part of the Muslim League things might have been different. Similarly, if India and the Indian leadership today are a bit more understanding of Pakistan’s insecurities and needs the future might be different.

India needs to do this for its own national interest and not just out of altruism for a neighbor. If India wants to be a regional, let alone a global power, it needs to rise above the South Asian region. However, to do that it will have to resolve the problems with Pakistan – the India-Pakistan dispute, the constant fear of another war which might have nuclear overtones, the Kashmir crisis – as these keep India tied down to the subcontinent.

India’s relations with countries both in its region and outside have also been impacted by the India-Pakistan dispute. China has been able to ‘use’ Pakistan as its ‘secondary deterrent’ against India – keep India tied down to South Asia and keep the Indian army tied on the Western border. India’s relations with the greater Muslim world though extremely good could be even better if the India-Pakistan dispute did not come in the way. And the India-US ties have always had ‘the Pakistan element’ in them.

India needs to reassure the Pakistani people and its leadership that India is always going to be there for them and is going to help them in this period of transition. The Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) which need to be signed are ones where treaties are signed about expansion of trade and commerce, growing educational ties and scholarships, and more people-to-people contacts.

However, along with this India as the larger country, as the more self-confident nation, needs to make gestures which show that it is willing to go more than half of the distance along the path of reconciliation. India needs to talk about issues which concern Pakistan like Kashmir. The question is not what the end result will be but rather that India is willing to listen to what the other side wants to say, rather than insist on just what it believes is right.

Many analysts would say that as the status quo power there is no need for India to give anything to Pakistan and that India can afford to fight the insurgency in Kashmir and other parts of the country without any problems for many years to come. I know India can do so but the question is what kind of a future are we looking at? Is India only concerned in proving a point – that it can afford to keep fighting Pakistan and it doesn’t care what happens to Pakistan or inside Pakistan? Or is Indian leadership mature enough to realize that maybe the way out is to reassure and help Pakistan become a self-confident, self-sufficient nation?

One of India’s foremost freedom fighters and leaders, C. Rajagopalachari wrote these prescient words in an article in ‘Swarajya’ in 1964 – “Is there any hope for India or for Pakistan, if we go on hating each other, suspecting each other, borrowing and building up armaments against each other – building our two houses, both of us on the sands of continued foreign aid against a future Kurukshetra? We shall surely ruin ourselves for ever if we go on doing this. … We shall be making all hopes of prosperity in the future, a mere mirage if we continue this arms race based on an ancient grudge and the fears and suspicions flowing from it.�

It is time India and Indian leaders took a decision. 61 years ago we made a tryst with destiny and it took us down a very tough path but we made it to where we are today. Today we owe it to ourselves and to our future generations to help Pakistan and Pakistan’s new leadership make its tryst with destiny. When Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary S.S. Menon go to Pakistan on May 20 we hope they will offer Pakistan something more than just the usual talk.