Growing stale
The Indian media, if not the government, is beginning to realise that Pakistan is not going to play Modi’s hide-and-seek with regard to normalisation any longer. Once again Delhi has played out its one-step-forward-five-steps-back policy; Modi tilting towards talks once more as he shook hands with Nawaz in Ufa, only to follow it with consistent cross-LoC and Working Boundary shelling. And Islamabad has chosen a far more dignified and diplomatic methodology to air its disapproval than the unfriendly neighbour. Rather than huff and puff, as Modi has been doing since assuming command, Islamabad is just taking its sweet time deciding about the NSA meeting due Aug23-24 and has scratched the Srinagar speaker’s name from the Commonwealth parliamentary meeting in Islamabad.
The delay about the NSA meeting is meant to convey how divided mainstream opinion has become inside Pakistan about reaching out to India – a marked departure from the not so distant past. And the speaker issue is meant to remind Modi about standard procedures that both sides have adhered to in the past – like Pakistanis regularly meeting Hurriyet leaders. And Kashmir, of course, will remain central no matter how much New Delhi spins terrorism concerns as the prime factor.
If the Modi administration were genuinely interested in a constructive engagement with Pakistan, it would have responded seriously to one of the many times Islamabad extended a sincere hand of friendship under this government. That it has not, and continues to provoke diplomatically as well as across the border, only points to a future without peace. And nobody can deny that Nawaz really tried to push negotiations forward; at the risk of alienating the military as well as his core, right leaning constituency. Apparently he visualised bigger trade and commercial linkages than the region has seen, and no outstanding issue was too big to keep the neighbours from making peace and reaping benefits. That, however, is not to be. It is best, therefore, if Pakistan also postures accordingly, as the foreign office has rightly started doing. The ball, once again, will be put in India’s court.
