Pakhtunkhwa Time
Pakistan-India peace talks have become a cyclic process: tension followed by running around to initiate talks, then resumption of talks, then arriving at an agreement that we are about to have a breakthrough in talks, but then a terrorist attack to subvert all that happened in the past. We have witnessed this cycle at least twice in the recent past. First, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s famous visit to Pakistan, followed by the signing of the Lahore declaration, which was then followed by the Kargil crisis. Later, after the two neighbours scared the world blue with a possible eruption of a nuclear war and stood, ‘eyeball-to-eyeball’ for eight long months, the leadership agreed to talk about talks. Then we saw that talks progressed to the extent that Pervez Musharraf pulled out a possible resolution to the Kashmir issue out of his hat. However, the direction of the ‘winds of change’ was turned around very soon after the Mumbai attacks. The massive vilification campaigns by the media that followed the incident completely turned the tables.
An entire year has passed since the Manmohan Singh government decided it was time to find a way to break the dialogue deadlock and kick-start the process of engagement with Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan remain embroiled in a confrontational engagement, even as the world around marches along, benefiting from an era of prolonged global peace. The 2008 terrorist bombing of Mumbai must not forever shadow the bilateral equation. Two years are enough to lick the wounds and assuage public feelings of outrage; after that, the business of running the two neighbouring states must be taken in hand. There are significant changes in the conflict dynamics of both India and Pakistan that must push both to review their stance towards each other. The centrality that drives the mindset on both sides is the enemy status that each side maintains of the other. Just as the Pakistani military remains India-centric, the Indian military, too, retains Pakistan as the prime threat.
Preconditioning dialogue means dooming it beforehand. It is time to get back to the drawing boards and give peace a chance. The Thimphu spirit just might be it. Talks are good. Sustain those by making them “uninterrupted and uninterruptible”. Preconditioning dialogue means dooming it beforehand. It is time to get back to the drawing boards and give peace a chance. The Thimphu spirit just might be it. Talks are good!
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