Indo- Pak Talks More Comedy Less Tragedy
By Syed Ali Mujtaba
27 July, 2010
Countercurrents.org
The recently concluded peace talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan held at Islamabad July 15, 2010 had elements of both tragedy and comedy.
Tragedy because a lot of hype and hoopla was built around the talks, but when the parleys could not make any headway, a pal of gloom enveloped the peace preachers.
The hopes were built around the fact that the two countries may engage with full sincerity of purpose and resolve all the outstanding disputes confronting the two nations for past six decades or so.
Hearts were broken when the parleys failed and when parties were far from the comfort zone, there was little hope that the normalization of relationship maybe round the corner.
It was the same old story at Islamabad that was repeated in the previous rounds of talk that unfolded wrapped up in suspicion and mistrust and the two sides engaged in blame game in the end. It tantamount to quizzing each other which came first, egg or the chick, i.e. terrorism or Kashmir?
Isn’t all this laced up with elements of comedy? As the outcome of the talks was on the expected lines, it put smile on the faces of those who predicted the outcome of the talks, even before it began. They were aware of the psyche of the two countries and were convinced the jinx could never be broken, and both may end up pointing fingers at each other. That’s exactly what happened at Islamabad in the end, it was more of a comedy and less of tragedy.
To cut the long story short, the breakdown of the peace talks gave the hawks a sense of glee while the doves sunk their head in despair. India wanted talks on trade, tourism and other issues to begin immediately and the formal parleys on Jammu and Kashmir, peace and security, Siachen etc to be discussed on a later date.
India held the view that the foreign secretaries were to work out the modalities on these complex issues and the two sides can then come to the negotiating table.
On Sir Creek, India was ready to discuss any Pakistani response to its last proposal and was willing to hold a meeting of the Surveyor-General from the Indian side and the Additional Secretary of the Defense Ministry from the Pakistani side.
On Siachin, India wanted to refer the issue to future interlocutors whom it called as “relevant officials” rather than the Defense Secretaries of the two sides.
India made it clear that the current delegation had no mandate to agree to a firm commitment to resume dialogue on Siachin and there could be no talks on its demilitarization.
The core concern of India was terrorism and it wanted firm action by Pakistan side on the terror front. It held the view that Pakistan’s effort to contain terrorism may “catalyze” the normalization of relationship between the two countries and create trust surplus for the discussions on other issues of importance.
Pakistan it seems had altogether different notion of the talks. It wanted to pick up the threads from the previous rounds of talks and wanted specific timelines for the resumption of discussion on Kashmir, peace and security, and Siachen.
It seems, while India wanted to take baby steps, Pakistan wanted to take giant strides to resolve the issues. There was a total mismatch of expectations from both the sides. This has happened not once but several times before and action replay has made the talks a laughing stock.
The recent history of India Pakistan talks can be picked up from 1988 when Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto concluded a pact not to attack each other's nuclear facilities. Agreements on cultural exchanges and civil aviation were also initiated. The two countries in an effort to curtail tensions formed a joint commission to examine disputes.
In 1997, high-level Indo-Pakistan talks resumed after a three-year pause. The Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan met twice and the foreign secretaries conducted three rounds of talks.
In June 1997, the foreign secretaries identified eight "outstanding issues" around which continuing talks would be focused. They were Peace and Security including CBMs, Jammu and Kashmir, Siachin, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage, Terrorism and Drug Trafficking.
In September 1997, the talks broke down over the structure of how to deal with the issues of Kashmir, and Peace and Security. Pakistan advocated that the issues be treated by separate working groups, India responded that the two issues be taken up along with six others on a simultaneous basis.
In May 1998 India and Pakistan, conducted nuclear tests and this led to the talks to froze again. Meanwhile, the Kargil conflict in 1999 further stalled the peace talks.
The Agra summit in July 2001 was a big attempt made by India and Pakistan to a find a solution to the vexed issues. The talks failed to yield any results in spite of high hopes attached to it.
Terrorists attack on Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001 further hampered the peace process and talks.
After UPA coming to power the back door diplomacy worked over time to put the stalled talks back on the rails. There were flurry of activities and many confidence building measures taken in the meantime giving a glimmer of hope of the normalization of relationship.
The terror attack on Mumbai city in November 2008 sent the entire normalization process to a tail spin. It took two for the two countries to come back to the negotiating table once again.
India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna visit to Islamabad on July 15, 2010, was a modest effort for the resumption of the dialogue process. The high expectation attached to it by its Pakistani counterparts was its own making. There was absolutely no necessity to raise the bar high, the two sides could have taken things light and could have agreed to see each other more, rather having now and never approach.
The failure of the talk maybe bad news for some but positives of it is that the parleys are back on track. How long this will remain so that is something to be carefully watched.
The tension between two countries leads to dialogue, but as soon as dialogue process picks up, it is stalled by a violent action, and a diplomatic stand-off ensues until the resumption of talks again. It is indeed a vicious circle that’s being witnessing for some time now.
In order to break the cycle, there must be some concrete measures from both the sides and there should be a resolve that talks should never be given a pause till the solution to the issues are found. It may stop the critique saying India Pakistan talks are more of a comedy and less of a tragedy.
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a working journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at [email protected]
