The Indian government has pressed the mute button on its dialogue with Pakistan.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has canceled Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh’s Aug. 25 visit to Islamabad, thus calling off talks with her Pakistani counterpart A.A. Choudhary. Had the meeting taken place, it would have been the first structured dialogue between the two nuclear armed neighbors since 2012 when Foreign Ministers S.M. Krishna and Hina Rabbani Khar of India and Pakistan respectively had held talks.
India took this unprecedented decision after Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi Abdul Basit met with separatist Kashmiri leaders on Monday despite New Delhi’s warnings not to do so.
The Pakistani envoy however met again with the Kashmiri separatist leaders the following day. On its part, the Modi government did not stop the meetings to be held, but the die had been cast. The India-Pakistan bilateral relations has hit a major setback in years. Modi’s flamboyant diplomacy with Pakistan, which he had begun by inviting his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to attend his swearing-in, dithered. Just two and a half months ago, Modi was seen as hitting the diplomatic ground running with his unprecedented initiative.
But on Aug. 18, with the Modi government calling off the foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan, the two South Asian neighbors stared at a back-to-square-one situation. There are two ways of looking at this development. From the Modi government’s perspective, it conveyed the following to Pakistan: It’s a tough decision by a strong PM who has a mind of his own; such things won’t be tolerated any longer though these might have happened routinely in the past; and Islamabad will have to decide, which way it wants to go on Kashmir issue — by holding talks with Delhi or the separatists. Thus Delhi has set a new template for future India-Pakistan talks.
Islamabad has taken it as a “setback to the efforts by the Pakistani leadership to promote good neighborly relations with India.” Pakistan has always maintained that its support to the Kashmiri separatists was on moral grounds and aimed at strengthening the cause of the Kashmiris. The Indian move drew flak from not only the Indian Kashmiri political outfits across the board, including the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress party, but also from the US-led international community.
The US deplored the Indian move and urged India and Pakistan to take steps to improve their relations. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf went on record describing the Indian government decision as “unfortunate.” The Indian decision seems swayed by politics of compulsion. Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled for assembly elections in the last quarter of this year. The ruling BJP is obviously eyeing the upcoming polls in Jammu and Kashmir and hope to end up as a kingmaker in these elections, not any more.
The Modi government’s hard stance vis-a-vis Pakistan and cancelation of talks will inevitably help the BJP. Whatever the assembly results, one thing is certain: The India-Pakistan bilateral relations have been put in deep freeze. The ever-floundering peace process which was showing signs of revival with the proposed Aug. 25 foreign secretaries’ level talks has now once again become moribund. What a pity!
—
The writer is a New Delhi-based independent journalist and a political commentator who tweets @Kishkindha.
