India must be alert and engaged while conducting dialogue with Pakistan

The primary difficulty in commenting upon the state of Indo-Pak diplomatic relations is that it is a known secret that Pakistan’s foreign policy, particularly when it comes to India, is mostly shaped by the military establishment. That anything substantial neither was expected nor emerged at the recent meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan has much to do with that fact. But the platitude that having some form of a dialogue is better than having none is, nonetheless, quite valid. New Delhi has no recourse except to seek to address and engage the various players, from the political and diplomatic fraternity to even the Pakistan military establishment, as part of its efforts to eliminate terror emanating from our neighbour’s territory as well as to support the goal of helping to deepen the democratic set-up in Pakistan.

There was talk of a ‘new era’ in bilateral ties having been ushered in after the meeting. The understanding, for now at least, seems to be that contacts and dialogue must be maintained despite tardy Pakistani progress on the trial of the accused in the Mumbai terror attacks, and even despite the spectre of another terror strike on Indian soil with direct links to Pakistan. If such an attack were to occur, that sort of pragmatism on New Delhi’s part would be hard to maintain , even if not impossible. Add to those facts the other long-standing issues between the two countries, and it is clear that it will take enormous political will to address them meaningfully. Clearly, there are no quick breakthroughs; at best, there could be an outline for a long-drawn-out dialogue process . India has much to be sceptical about.

The Pak military retains its hostility towards India and its commitment to the use of terror for strategic depth; the situation in Afghanistan is in flux and what happens there will impact much else. But the right course of action is to keep an eye on things, stay engaged, while protecting our interests , and seek to use the right measure of prodding and dialogue with Pakistan’s main power centres, who, alas, are less pretty than the face they send abroad.