It was refreshing to hear that India wants normal relations with Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s utterance, on the eve of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, that his country wants “normal and neighbourly relations” with Pakistan must have raised many eyebrows in India itself. While Pakistan has always endorsed meaningful relations with its eastern neighbour, it is India that has a spanner in the works of a dialogue. Composite dialogues are a mantra of the past, and now Delhi is even irked with a public handshake as exhibited during Foreign Minister Bilawal Zardari’s debut visit to Goa on the sidelines of SCO conference. This speaks of the Indian animosity with Pakistan, and the fact that it feels off the hook by avoiding talks over Kashmir, by playing the bogey of cross-border terrorism.
The onus is on India to create conducive environment for talks which should be unconditional in essence. It’s high time for India to realise that it has been shying away from an exposure with Pakistan, which is costing dearly on regional peace and security. While human rights excesses in the occupied Kashmir is a foregone conclusion, the BJP government policy of otherness under its Hindutva doctrine has made life miserable for millions of Indian Muslims, and even sections of egalitarian Indians (read Hindus) are worried and marginalised to the core. This is so because India believes in crushing a reality in Kashmir i.e. denying the right of self-determination to the besieged Muslim community.
As India showcases its glory at the G20 summit next week in occupied Srinagar, it is quite evident that the world leaders are concerned over ground realities, and are tongue-in-cheek questioning the dilemma of Kashmir. China and Turkey have publicly distanced from attending the moot at a controversial venue. India must realise that times have changed, and there is now a growing need for it to stop looking at Pakistan from a biased prism of hatred. Geo-economics and social media revolution have stampeded traditional foreign policy, and now is the time to think out of the box.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2023.
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