Indian diplomacy‎ shocks the talks

Why Delhi is doing what it is doing

India is known for its successful diplomatic overtures and over the past decades Indian diplomats and skilful political wizards have turned the tables on their adversaries, winning political, economic and defence advantages for their state.

However, despite the fact that the diplomatic successes of Pakistan are rare, the Indian political and army establishment sets aside diplomacy and wants to settle all disputes through the gun.

Pakistan, for the first time in the recent past, has put Indian diplomacy on the back-foot, by scheduling a meeting of National Security Advisor (NSA) Sartaj Aziz with the leaders of Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organisation of the popular freedom fighter movement in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government which for the first time raised an objection to the meeting of Hurriyat leaders with Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit on the eve of Eidul Fitr last year by cancelling a scheduled meeting between foreign secretaries of both the countries, though it was a norm since 1948.

However, things normalised a bit when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with his Indian counterpart during his recent visit to Ufa, Russia, where both leaders agreed in principle to restart the negotiations. Following this meeting, the Indian government proposed for a meeting between the NSAs from India and Pakistan.

Some politicians believe that the military leadership in Pakistan was sceptical about this meeting, fearing that Indian NSA Ajit Doval, who has a long list of successful covert terrorist operations against Pakistan, might take advantage of this meeting — but it seems like a conspiracy theory with no legs to stand on.

In fact, the army leadership has fully backed the political and diplomatic decisions taken by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and hopefully this equation can help resolve longstanding disputes between India and Pakistan.

More likely, India proposed the NSA meeting just to neutralise any move from Pakistan to highlight Indian involvement in destabilising Pakistan during the forthcoming session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Engagement between the national security advisors (NSAs) of India and Pakistan is very crucial in the evolving scenario as Pakistan expresses its readiness to engage India at all levels.

India’s proposal for the NSA engagement was aimed at tricking the international community that it is also desirous of making contact with Pakistan. On the other hand, in a bid to affect the NSA meeting, India has increased shelling on the line of control (LoC) resulting in killing of innocent Pakistani civilians which clearly shows India’s customary tactic to avoid any discourse with Pakistan.

Irrespective of the fact whether this meeting takes place or not, Pakistan has scored a huge breakthrough in diplomacy by scheduling a meeting with the leaders of Hurriyat Conference — an umbrella organisation of the freedom seekers of Indian Occupied Kashmir.

Many in powerful circles believe that this diplomatic offensive is a brainchild of the Pakistani establishment — though the trio of Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Sartaj Aziz and Abdul Basit is quite capable of carving out this plan.

More likely, India proposed the NSA meeting just to neutralise any move from Pakistan to highlight Indian involvement in destabilising Pakistan during the forthcoming session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

Perhaps the Indian move for the NSA meeting was aimed at making its claim that the nuclear armed South Asian neighbours are interested in resolving their issues bilaterally — a trick it has used to avert international intervention at any level for third-party engagement for resolution of decades old disputes with Pakistan.

Ajit Doval, the NSA from India, is acclaimed for his covert operations against Pakistan and is known for having good negotiating skills. However, his skills for diplomatic negotiations are yet to be tested.

On the other hand, veteran Sartaj Aziz is a wizard in economic and foreign relations and his skills at the dialogue table are also tested over the years.

Pakistan and India have a history of holding non-starter talks which goes back to 1960s when the then foreign ministers Swaran Singh and ZA Bhutto held successive rounds of negotiations without any output.

It is therefore the need of the hour that the Foreign Office, in consultation with all the stakeholders, should prepare a well defined agenda to discuss issues at the NSA level rather than discussing peripheral non-issues.

If the Indian leadership is serious about a meaningful engagement with Pakistan, it must include all outstanding issues for discussion rather than limiting the range of bilateral engagement only to terrorism as any engagement with India minus Kashmir is unacceptable to Pakistan.

Pakistan must also take up the issue of Indian involvement in Karachi, Fata and Balochistan rather than limiting the dialogue to Mumbai attacks. Mr Aziz must understand that no sitting would be held without discussing the core issue of Kashmir and the people of Pakistan would never allow it.

India’s military posturing and deliberate escalation of tension at Working Boundary and Line of Control (LoC) is actually aimed at detracting Pakistan’s attention from fighting terrorism.

For regional peace and prosperity, India needs to frame a conscientious policy shift towards Pakistan and it should reach out through the dialogue process to strengthen stability in the region.

However, the recent past has proved that India tries at every turn to destabilise Pakistan in one way or the other. India fans ethno-sectarian and secessionist tendencies, funds, trains and proliferates terrorism through proxies. Therefore, the situation warrants that Pakistan should remain very cautious and careful in making any diplomatic manoeuvres and future engagements with India.

When it comes to the Indian minorities of Muslims and Sikhs — from Kashmir, Gujarat to Punjab, the Indians are callous enough to allow their extremists and army to kill and dump the innocent. So are the judiciary and security forces of India who not only allow massacres like Gujarat and New Delhi, they also set free those involved in mass killings of minorities.

Even the Indian establishment and media turns such criminals into heroes and later such people can even become prime ministers of India — thanks to media and political management by the architects of the plan — RAW.

Moreover, India should also revise its current security doctrine of coercion, exporting terrorism, and exploitation (e.g., negative role in Afghanistan and aggressive diplomatic isolation of Pakistan).

Hence, Pakistan would have to be very smart in going into diplomatic overtures with Indian negotiators who have a rich history of diplomatic successes since independence.

Everyone knows and admires Indian diplomacy. Over the years, Indian diplomats and bureaucrats have won over countries due to excellent diplomatic skills. However, it is a dilemma that the skilful Indian diplomats have either failed to convince their successive rulers and the powerful armed forces to use diplomacy and find solutions to the decades-old disputes with Pakistan or lack the commitment to do so.

Maybe Indian diplomats have been held hostage by extremist outfits like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or other militant arms of the Hindu extremist politicians like premier Narendra Modi.

Ajit Doval, the NSA from India, is acclaimed for his covert operations against Pakistan and is known for having good negotiating skills

History tells us how well the Indian diplomats took great advantage of the tiff between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the cold war era. During those times, Indians exploited their better equation with Russia and got aid and grants worth billions of dollars.

Then when the USSR was falling apart, Indian diplomats switched to the US, and attracted generous funding from the US as well. Now Indian diplomats are again taking full advantage of the contretemps between the US and China as the latter is an emerging world power and is defying the US on major fronts.

On the contrary, the performance of Pakistani diplomats has never been up to the mark. Except for some rare diplomatic giants like Mr Ikramullah, Sir Zafarullah Khan, Aziz Ahmed, ZA Bhutto, Agha Shahi, Sahibzada Yaqub Ali Khan, Mohammad Ali Bogra and SM Zafar, Pakistan has failed to produce bureaucrats with extraordinary diplomatic skills.

Indian diplomacy was again at its best when we saw that Indians handed over Tibet to China in a bid to avoid confrontation with the emerging economic giant. Not only did India hand down Tibet to China to avoid a war, they also used diplomacy to handle issues like Aksai Chin, Ladakh and North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA).

The Indian government even gave diplomacy a chance after the humiliation they faced during the 1962 war with China during which Indian troops were arrested in Aksai Chin. As of today, India has surrendered approximately 38,000 sq kms to China in Ladakh for which China had a valid demand.

Moreover, China claims approximately 90,000 sq kms of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh and about 2000 sq kms on the India-China boundary. Beijing does not recognise Arunachal Pradesh. However, India has been negotiating with Beijing to cut a deal to settle the dispute.

The Sino-Indian border has not suffered any major disruptions since 1986 — thanks to smart diplomacy by India and China. The leadership of both China and India have used communication and talks to avoid any border dispute which reflects the sagacity and vision of the leadership of both countries.

However, it is unfortunate that the same Indian leadership does not allow its diplomats to use their innovative and visionary approach to settle all disputes with Pakistan through talks.

When it comes to a tiff with powerful China, the so-called gallantry and valour of the Indians evaporates in thin air but they are very brave and valiant to kill, maim and slaughter of the minority Muslims and Sikhs of the subcontinent.