There’s no hope of immediate dialogue
Journalist friends in India were saying for days that Khurshid Kasuri would make news and draw crowds in India, though the Shiv Sena episode, or anything of the like, was far from their minds. The Indian media and a bunch of politicians are fond of Kasuri because of the outreach of the Musharraf days. That is the closest the two sides have ever come to breaking the long deadlock.
Kasuri, as foreign minister, was the natural face of that interaction. But it’s what happened away from the glare of the international media that not only made headway in the talks, but also many lasting friendships on both sides. The real progress was made, as Kasuri has elaborated in his book, during those two long years of secret back-channel negotiations that preceded the media frenzy. All outstanding issues were discussed. In fact, Kasuri once told this paper in an interview long before the book came out that Sir Creek was within a signature of being settled; and might well have been had Manmohan Singh not put off his visit in ’07 owing to the rising wave of judicial discontent spreading across Pakistan then.
Things have changed considerably since then, to say the least. The judiciary’s revolt triggered a steady unravelling of the Musharraf regime, and proposals like the four-point solution, Kashmir’s mutual demilitarisation, etc, have long been rubbished to the dust bin of history.
Ties worsened in the PPP government, of course, primarily because of the Mumbai attack. And Nawaz now has Modi to contend with, whose tolerance and indeed promotion of right-wing Hindu nationalism made Kasuri the unintended face of growing mutual discontent this time.
But this was not supposed to be the flashpoint of Kasuri’s visit, at least not according to the journo friends. “I am appalled”, one wrote in an email. “I feel humiliated”, said another.
Kasuri, however, was quick to settle the controversy and “put things in the proper context”, as he put it.
“I launched my book there at four places during a very short stay”, he said during an exclusive interview with DNA.
But this was not supposed to be the flashpoint of Kasuri’s visit, at least not according to the journo friends. “I am appalled”, one wrote in an email. “I feel humiliated”, said another
“And in three of the four places I received a very warm and respectful welcome. Even Bombay was good except for Shiv Sena”.
It says something, after all, when the Indian president receives a former Pakistani foreign minister and the vice president hosts a lunch, that too in such times. And Manmohan Singh and LK Advani were gracious enough to honour him by accepting the book launch invitation in Delhi.
The media duly lined up too. And a host of media personalities, politicians and former soldiers were agreeing with much of what Kasuri wrote about India and Pakistan in his book.
“At least it shows they did not disagree with too much”, he said.
This was about the time the Shiv Sena threats began. They had already threatened away Ghulam Ali and other Pakistani artists. The beef lynching case had also already taken place. And the Modi government’s silence spoke volumes about New Delhi’s new position.
“I was in Delhi when Shiv Sena first threatened me”, he said. “They warned me against landing in Bombay or they would resort to Sena like tactics, whatever that means”.
Kasuri said he decided to take a political decision. “I am a politician after all”, he added. “I have faced jails, baton charges, I was even kept in the condemned prisoners cell for six months in Zia’s time”.
But first he had to check whether his hosts were still game. It turned out that if he wasn’t backing down, neither was Surendra Kulkarni.
“The Indian government didn’t discourage me from travelling either, so we decided to take a calculated risk. I thought the Maharashtra government would like to avoid headlines like ‘Former Pakistani foreign minister manhandled in Bombay’”, he explained.
The Maharashtra government did provide him adequate security which he “can’t complain about”. There were about 200 policemen guarding the hotel, and 20 odd cars accompanying him.
But he learned on the morning of the launch that Kulkarni had been stopped en route and attacked with black oil paint.
“I must admire his courage”, Kasuri continued. “I was going to leave the city, but he lives in Bombay, and the climate there has become very hostile for him. Yet he boldly went ahead with the function”.
The incident dominated mainstream news for the next few days, of course. How could such a diverse society and polity drift so suddenly so far to the right? And, worse still, how could the government practically condone such acts through its silence and delayed responses?
Among other things, Shiv Sena’s antics also exposed cleavages within the BJP. Kulkarni was, after all, one of the pillars of the party till the Vajpayee days. Often enough he was also the prime minister’s speech writer. He parted ways recently precisely because of the sharp turn deep into the right under Modi. But that’s not something Kasuri wanted to comment on, even though he’s close to some of the party’s old guard.
“Advani called and expressed regret over the incident”, he said. “I invited him to Pakistan in 2005, that’s when I met Kulkarni too. And there’s definitely something brewing between the old guard and the new, but that’s not something I’d like to comment on”.
The Maharashtra government did provide him adequate security which he “can’t complain about”. There were about 200 policemen guarding the hotel, and 20 odd cars accompanying him
But what about Pak-India? For years Kasuri has advocated the secret back-channel diplomacy model that almost brought success in this time. Can that work now, when Delhi is so openly hostile, and so clearly opposed to dialogue on what Islamabad considers core matters?
“There should be no public interaction in the immediate future”, he simply said. “The international community has seen that Nawaz Sharif repeatedly tried to restart the dialogue, but India always put roadblocks in the way”.
But he feels Pakistan should still be open to secret back-channel diplomacy. It should be given six months, and only if the Indians respond positively should the talks be made public. Short of that there is little hope, and the answer ultimately lies with India.
“I feel that just like there has been a fight for the soul of Pakistan for many years, there is also a fight for India’s soul under way”, he explained.
Pakistan departed from the Quaid’s ideals, “especially his inclusive vision, as explained in the famous Aug11 speech”, and now the mainstream is having to fight for its rights.
“In India such currents were kept under the surface, especially under Nehru’s rule, but there’s been a fight between the RSS types and the more moderate bloc”, he added.
In conclusion, Kasuri felt Modi had few options but to come down hard on trouble makers, “and he’s not done that so far”.
“It took him two to three weeks to respond to the beef lynching, and that too under pressure. Now, interestingly, other forms of protest are emerging. The press is speaking up, a lot of people despised the Bombay incident, and dozens of writers have returned prestigious awards to protest Shiv Sena’s extremism and the Modi government’s silence.”
He’s been one of Pakistan’s most successful foreign ministers, and among the most optimistic when it comes to Pakistan-India. But now he, too, seems to have lost hope. Maybe the two sides will still take a leaf out of his book and give the back door one last chance. If they do, he will have influenced history once again.