part of the Indian cultural milieu and official policy, has placed Pakistan on a high moral ground for which we deserve praise.
The event nevertheless served its purpose of identifying some major realities pertinent to Pak-India relations. First, the progressive and humanistic ambience of such relations could flourish despite a bitter confrontational mode. Second, no amount of politics can circumvent the depth of these relations. Third, peace has a fair chance to prevail by diffusion of cultural nuances, which may have the ability to then defuse political tension in the long run. What better occasion for an illustration of peace than the Faiz Festival which symbolised freedom, tolerance, and friendship for us estranged neighbours.
There have been other steps recently, mainly from the Pakistani side, with an intention to promote peace, especially when the air was rife with hostility across the border. The compassionate return of Gita to her native land could not have been more timely; this was acknowledged by the Indian authorities as well. Recently our Rangers have resumed the ritual of exchanging sweets with their Indian counterparts at the Wagah border. This practice had been abandoned as a consequence of continual cross-border firing at the LoC a few months ago.
The participation of Indian delegates at a recent two-day conference in Karachi on India-Pakistan relations – held under the auspices of the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations, a local non-governmental entity – was encouraging. The objective was to promote peace. The participants included Mani Shankar Aiyar, a diplomat and now a Congress MP, Sudheendra Kulkarni, a BJP politician and journalist, and Salman Haider, a former Indian foreign secretary. They all exchanged their views and ideas amidst a wide audience.
The momentum of cross-cultural communication must be kept alive. But there are other avenues where the two neighbours can cooperate for their mutual benefit, especially in dealing with issues like poverty, socioeconomic conditions, security, trade, tourism and investment. Unfortunately, this is where no substantial headway has been made despite the previous encounters.
A few factors must be kept in mind when dealing with South Asia. China and India, despite a border dispute and deep mistrust, signed agreements worth billions of dollars in 2013 as the two emerging markets pledged to broaden commercial ties despite political tensions. This was followed by inking border defence cooperation in a bid to settle their decades’-old stalemate on overlapping claims to the long stretches of the Himalayas. Two years ago, the two countries signed a security agreement to boost bilateral security cooperation, enhance coordination on anti-terrorism endeavours and share intelligence information regarding regional and international terror groups and their activities.
This can serve as a good example for Pakistan and India but it all depends on whether the two countries are willing to set their differences aside. The ball is now in India’s court, whose leadership must value the importance of peace for the ultimate benefit of the people.
The writer holds an LLM degree in international economic law from the University of Warwick. Email: beelam_ramzanyahoo.com