Calling off talks: Indo-Pak need stronger statesmanship

It is a matter of regret that India has called off the scheduled foreign secretary-level Indo-Pak talks, aggrieved by the Pakistan’s high commissioner’s decision to meet separatist leaders from Kashmir. This reflects poor statesmanship. Domestically, it allows a handful of actors to set the agenda for the government in its interaction with another government. In Pakistan, it allows hardline elements in the establishment, never keen on dialogue with India, to reinforce their claim that talking to New Delhi is futile. Further, it suggests lack of coherence within the government and its political thinking. It had been the previous BJP Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had announced that the framework for talks to resolve the Kashmir problem would be as broad as humanity.

This had recently been reiterated by home minister Rajnath Singh. The government’s overreaction on Monday suggests either that Narendra Modi repudiates what his predecessor and his number two in the Cabinet had said, or that talking is outside the pale of humanity. In either case, it does not reflect well on New Delhi’s willingness to follow through on the intent of statesmanship revealed by inviting leaders of all South Asian countries, including Pakistan, to the swearing-in of the Modi government.

There are multiple layers to the Kashmir problem, ranging from terror and Islamic fundamentalism to routine, and brutal, violation of the civic and human rights of the people of the state. At its core is a political problem, which cannot be addressed by excluding any section of the people involved. Intolerance of broad-based engagement does not augur well either for any advance on Kashmir or on the entire range of issues that vitiate relations between India and Pakistan.