The Non-Talks and after

Talks between the National Security Advisers of Pakistan and India have been called off. After a week of accusations and counter-accusations, we are told the NSA, the indefatigable and honourable Sartaj Aziz, will no more be going to New Delhi. At the centre of the row is Pakistan’s insistence that it would meet leaders of the Hurriyet Conference, while India insisted that the talks should focus on terrorism only with no mention of Kashmir.

After our faux pas in not mentioning Kashmir in the joint declaration by our respective PMs earlier this year, some say we are trying to make amends. Pakistan asserts that what India has been doing on its side of the Line of Control is terrorism, with thousands of people dead, maimed or missing. India rejects the charge and insists that this is an internal matter. We live in this cycle of talks and non-talks.

The meetings of the Hurriyet leaders with the Pakistani NSA were just a symptom of a greater malaise – the lack of an agreement on what should be discussed in the talks which were so grandly announced some months earlier.

Sitting on this side of the border, one cannot fathom what the Indian leadership is thinking. For Pakistan, however, the issue of normalisation of relations goes beyond talk of terrorism. There are a number of outstanding issues that need to be addressed but are conveniently ignored by one side or another.

In Pakistan, the general feeling is that India is not interested in talks. In fact, many pundits had earlier predicted that New Delhi would call off the talks before anything could be discussed on the table. We believe here, that India wants to call the shots but we are unwilling to give in.

Prime Minister Modi has been busy over the past month in terms of influencing people and winning over friends. The speed with which the Indian government reacted to the earthquake in Nepal earlier this year is remembered by the Nepali people. In fact, it was the Indian PM who is rumored to have told his Nepali counterpart of the occurrence of the natural disaster in the first place. He has won a place in their hearts.

Sri Lanka, which has always been close to Pakistan, is also seen moving away owing not only to the change in government but also in the mood of the people there. What is ironic is that while Pakistan played an important role in helping the Sri Lankans in their conflict at a time when they needed help the most, it is India that seems to be reaping the benefits.

Our relations with Bangladesh, which were finally on the positive side, are now somewhat in tatters. Their PM’s personal hatred for Pakistan which stems from events in history have somewhat blinded her in her quest for relations with the Indian government, whose current PM cannot claim too that his hands are clean of the killings of innocent Muslims. While one hopes for good things to come out of their relations, as we have seen in the exchange of border enclaves, this must not be at the cost of relations with Pakistan.

Another wake-up call for us is PM Modi’s visit to the UAE where the government went out of the way to accommodate him. In a country where the assembly of more than four people can become an issue, he was allowed to address hundreds at a stadium.

The Indian media now tells us that the UAE is warming up to New Delhi after relations with Pakistan were affected by our decision not to send troops to fight alongside the Saudis in Yemen.

In the words of Henry Kissinger, who paraphrased Lord Palmerstone, “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.” We need to pursue an aggressive foreign policy to counter attempts to isolate us.

We need to win back old friends and make new ones. We pat ourselves on the back when we are able to table a motion on Kashmir in the UN. It is time to move beyond that. Is it not somewhat ironic that a man who oversaw the killing of hundreds of Muslims in his state today accuses us of terrorism and gets other leaders to go along with him? It is time to rethink our strategy.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th,  2015.

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