Derailed relations

In the latest step backwards in the peace process, India has decided to put on hold the issuance of group tourist visas to Pakistanis, a day before the measure was to be introduced. Additionally, the Indian hockey team has also pulled out of a proposed tour to Pakistan when, as expected, the team did not get permission from its government. This sudden hostility dates back to the twin incidents at the Line of Control (LoC), when soldiers from both countries were killed in separate incidents. It is India, however, that has since taken the lead in dismantling the gains of two years of peace talks. First, it suspended a proposed plan to allow elderly Pakistanis a visa on arrival. Soon after, protests in Mumbai forced our hockey players to return home and our women’s cricket team to play its matches in another city, where security concerns forced them to live in the stadium’s clubhouse. Pakistani diplomats were also barred from attending the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Some feel that these steps are election gimmicks and that the Indian government needs to please its voter base at this point in time. But surely, the tireless efforts of years on the foreign policy front of a country must not be disregarded on a whim. India needs to accept that both countries share equal responsibility for the LoC incidents, which remain shrouded in mystery.

India has also rejected our offer to have the UN investigate the LoC killings as it refuses to accept any involvement from an outside authority in Kashmir, knowing that it may lead to a demand that UN resolutions on the disputed territory be heeded. However, breaking off people-to-people contact is a surefire way to sow even further hatred and ignorance. There can only be normalisation of relations if there are greater cultural, sporting and literary ties between the two countries. Progress on political issues will then surely follow, as we have seen repeatedly before the LoC incidents derailed ties.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2013.