Peace, unlike war, does not appear out of sudden
Though in no one’s favour particularly, Pakistan and India have always had a rocky relationship. Not much time goes by when one, or in cases both sides, pull on reverse gear on what little progress they had made to bring lasting peace to the South Asian region. Only recently, both nations seemed to be on track for greater understanding for peace after the 26/11 tragedy when an apparent smooth ride was cut short with violence on LoC and brought them back to square one. As usual, the whole charade of who created the rift led to blame game and ultimately discontinuation of peace dialogue. However, both New Delhi and Islamabad, even though mired by a widening mistrust, have started taking baby steps towards normalising relations again.
When seen in this backdrop, the decision by eminent Indian poet Gulzar to pull out of Karachi Literary Festival does not bode well for the whole peace promoting agenda. It was ‘nothing political’, just that he was ‘emotionally overwhelmed and stressed’ was the reason cited by his colleagues though security concerns have also been raised by some. Another Indian, Shobhaa De, has tweeted that she won’t attend the KLF as her visa was not yet issued, bringing to mind an episode of the same nature when Pakistani participants were refused visas by India to attend the Jaipur Literary Festival. Whatever the reason their pulling out does not bode well for that elusive idea of peace.
It is these steps that can create a mini cold war of tit for tat action by both sides, and the process of moving towards peace and cordial social and economic relations between the two major sub-continental nations would take a hit. In the backdrop of deep mistrust between the two nations, it is all the more reason not to prolong the conflagration; in recent times we have already seen that post-26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, keeping the progress stalled only hurts the prospect of peace between the two nuclear neighbours.
It is imperative for socio-economic development of the sub-continent that peace prevails. But with miscreants taking advantage of situations like these, the mistrust would go nowhere but deeper. For both countries, any progress on the peace agenda would not take place unless they take a leap in faith, so to speak. All they have got to do is to lower the acerbic tone and give each other a chance to show their inclination for peace. This way no tangible result might be visible in the short-term, but a solid and stable foundation for a lasting peace can be laid.