One of the biggest challenges facing the PTI government is Pakistan’s relations with India. In his first speech as prime minister, Imran Khan adopted a surprisingly diplomatic stance stating that if India took one step towards peace, Pakistan would do twice as much.
This was followed by the PTI government’s invitation to the Indian Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, for a peaceful dialogue process at the UN General Assembly in September 2018. After accepting the invitation, the Indian government retreated from its stance overnight and decided that it would not engage in talks with Pakistan.
Since then, there has been a series of hostile gestures emanating from India towards its neighbour. The Indian media has particularly had a very negative role to play in this. As someone who has frequently participated on Indian news channel debates where they put a label of ‘Pak View’ above the Pakistani speakers, I have had the occasion to make a few observations regarding the factors which have stalled the peace process between the estranged neighbours.
The Indian government supports its stance on the basis that ‘Pakistan needs to end providing havens to extremist elements before inviting India to engage in peaceful dialogue’. However, unless India engages in a constructive dialogue with Pakistan, there will be no forum on which it will be able to address its grievances. There is no transparency in establishing the factual basis of India’s allegations allowing them to halt the peace process indefinitely.
India’s other contention revolves around 26/11. India has alleged Pakistan’s lack of cooperation in bringing the perpetrators to justice. But PM Imran Khan has recently told the Washington Post that he has asked his government to keep him updated about the progress of the cases against the alleged perpetrators.
Of course Pakistan, like any other country, has its fair share of challenges that leave room for more to be done to eradicate extremism but the hostility with which the Indian media tries to paint Pakistan impairs India’s own narrative, rendering it wholly unreliable.
The negative coverage that the Indian media provided to Pakistan’s generous step of laying the Kartarpur Corridor, citing miniscule things such as PM Imran Khan’s mention of the Kashmir issue, highlighted how ill-at-ease they are at giving a fair assessment of events. While the Pakistan government was extending the olive branch to them, the Indian media sensationalised the completion of their Arihant submarine, calling it a victory over Pakistan despite Pakistan’s indifference to the same.
The rhetoric employed by the Indian media again highlights their bias. Defence ‘analysts’ from across the border label Pakistanis as ‘beggars’ simply because, like any other country, the Pakistani government is working on securing good trade and bailout deals. Has India not collaborated with Russia to help develop their weapons programme? Has India not (despite its objections to CPEC) recently teamed up with China for a trade deal? So, by that definition are they also not ‘beggars’?
There are sections of society in both India and Pakistan who wish to see better cross-border relations but unless the Indian government and their media do not give up such offensive rhetoric, such a possibility would only remain a distant dream. There is no harm in having a difference of opinion but to shame a whole country and to preach hatred against their whole population is the same kind of xenophobia that was once propagated by the Nazis.
A recent World Bank finding has reported Pakistan-India trade to be valued at $2bn dollars as compared to the $37bn potential that could otherwise have been reached. This proves the validity of PM Imran Khan’s Kartarpur speech that fostering better relations between the countries is not just a privilege but a need so as to achieve greater economic growth and more trade opportunities for the betterment of the poverty-stricken populations struggling on both sides of the border.
The writer is an advocate of the high court.
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