Talking things through

There is plenty on the agenda for Pakistan and India to talk about right now. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the visit by Indian Foreign Secretary Subramaniam Jaishankar, who is meeting his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry in Islamabad during his two-day visit to the country, has been downgraded by New Delhi from a process marking the resumption of bilateral dialogue to a less significant one forming part of a tour of all Saarc nations. The Pakistan Foreign Office has however made it clear that key issues including that of Kashmir, will be taken up. This is something we need to do right now. The visit comes just as a coalition government led by the Kashmir People’s Democratic Party, and featuring the BJP as its major partner, has finally been cobbled together in Srinagar. No government had been formed to govern Indian-held Kashmir after the divisive verdict delivered by the electorate in state polls held at the end of 2014. The new Chief Minister of IHK, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, at an oath-taking ceremony on Sunday March 1 attended also by Indian PM Narendra Modi, has immediately called for resumption in dialogue on Kashmir with Hurriyat leaders and also Pakistan. Sayeed also pulled Pakistan closer into Kashmir by praising it, as well as militant groups, for permitting polls to proceed smoothly. He also referred, at least obliquely, to the agreement on Kashmir’s future almost finalised between former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, suggesting he would like to resume matters from where they were left.
Sayeed’s call for dialogue is significant. His party’s position on Kashmir differs in many ways from that of the BJP, and the two groups make an awkward partnership. Modi’s hawkish stance on Kashmir, the Hurriyat Conference which seeks the right for self-determination to Kashmiris and cross-border militancy have all added to tensions with Pakistan. Mufti Sayeed is quite evidently eager to ease these, an approach that needs to be welcomed. With India also announcing an enhanced defence budget, and Pakistan’s Adviser to the PM on Defence Sartaj Aziz responding by saying his country would meet all needs of the army, it seems obvious there is a need for reduced hostility. This can happen only when there is dialogue and discussion. Even if their meeting is not strictly a part of the bilateral process between Pakistan and India, the two foreign secretaries can help move towards normalisation of relations. The line adopted by the new CM in Srinagar clearly suggests that there is an urgent need for this, with the future of the people of Kashmir and also those who live in other regions in both countries, linked to a very considerable extent with the wider question of Pak-India ties and the ability of both nations to live as good neighbours.