Former foreign minister Khursheed Kasuri on Thursday said that both Pakistan and India had no option but to turn to peace.
Talking to Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami in his talk show DNA on Channel 24, Kasuri said that there had been nine military conflicts between the two countries with millions of soldiers coming eyeball to eyeball, and now that both countries were nuclear powers, an armed conflict was even more dangerous.
Kasuri said that it was his impression after the trip to India that many people in that country thought that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies and rhetoric were not sustainable. He cited the example 41 Indian writers and many others returning their awards in protest. He said that since the lynching of an Indian Muslim over eating beef, people have realized the dangers in rising levels of intolerance.
He said that Modi also did not have any option but to turn to peace if he wanted to have a legacy as a successful prime minister of India.
Kasuri said that even in Mumbai where they had held many anti-Pakistan demonstrations, people had called him up and wrote to him to thank him for “calling the bluff” of the Modi government. He said that there were rifts even within the BJB and that not all of them were extremists.
Surendra Kulkarni, who organized Kasuri’s book launch in Mumbai and was smeared with black oil paint by Shiv Sena activists opposed to the event, said during the same show that extremists were a minority in India and that a majority wanted to have peace and good relation with Pakistan. He said that they had received threats against the book launch but refused to cower before the pressure. He said that in spite of the threat hundreds of people had turned up to attend the ceremony.
He said that Shiv Sena had been isolated in Maharashtra as well as the whole of India. He said that there should be a dialogue not only between the ministers and officials of the two countries but also between the masses. That is why, he said, they had invited Kasuri to India.
Kulkarni said that general public on both sides may have feelings of anger and resentment towards each other but that he believed that the Indian government would have to start a dialogue with Pakistan soon. He stressed the importance of building mutual trust between the two countries.
Kasuri said that, while in India, he had proposed to top Indian officials to start back-channel diplomacy with Pakistan and impose a ‘gag-order’ on government officials against making provocative statements. He said that for the two countries to keep repeating the past mistakes would tantamount to insanity. He said that Modi would be a failure and may not even complete his tenure if he did not open up a dialogue with Pakistan.
Kasuri said that there were indications that even Rashtriya Sevak Sangh was coming around to the fact that there was no option but to resume dialogue with Pakistan or the party would lose support of the people.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to change the character of India, but that his polarising policies would not be successful.
Kulkarni said that while there were threats from the Shiv Sena extremists, government of Maharashtra had provided security to the former foreign minister as well as for his book launch ceremony. He said that the actions of Shiv Sena did not represent the character and disposition of the Indian public and that they had been condemned by the entire media and the people of India.
He said that there was anger in India over the 2008 Mumbai attacks but that he had tried to convey to the people that courts these days operated a bit differently, as a bail for Lukhvi in Pakistani courts coincided with the accused in Samjhota Express attack going free.
Kasuri discounted the impression that army was the sole arbiter of foreign policy and said that once you are on the table for negotiations, the strongest arguments and not the parochial interests won out. He said that time was now ripe for dialogue between the two countries.
