Real change comes from within
With diplomacy having taken a back seat, India-Pakistan relations are in a free fall. The two sides had announced the resumption of Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue (CBD), which never took-off due to terror strikes in Pathankot and Uri. The South Asian regional summit scheduled for Islamabad was wrecked by India, though Pakistan’s Interior Minister too did his bit to mar the relations between the neighbours. The era of Sharif-Modi tweets seems to be over till at least the holding of elections in India’s Uttar Pradesh. A ministerial level session of the Heart of Asia Conference is scheduled on December 4 in Amritsar. While Sartaj Aziz had recently expressed the resolve to attend it, his visit still remains unconfirmed. The diplomatic missions that guarantee regular interaction are under fire now with India expelling a Pakistani staffer and Islamabad reciprocating with a similar act. There are reports about further deportations being in the offing
The diplomatic vacuum is invariably filled with the voices of the shrill and short-sighted. The media in both countries clearly conveys the message. Cross border firing, shelling and mortar attacks across the LoC and Working Boundary are turning into a daily affair, continuing to target innocent civilians, women and children. Both sides claim they fire only in retaliation. The media in the two countries invariably counts its own dead and injured closing its eyes to what has happened on the other side. The human suffering caused by the attacks is either ignored or used as propaganda material to malign one another
The EU we are told is working to defuse India-Pakistan tensions. Both the US and Russia have called upon the two sides to show restraint and resolve all the outstanding issues through peaceful means. The downturn in relations however continues to aggravate. Unless initiative for restraint comes from within, there is little hope of the de-escalation of tension.
There is need to rein in and ponder over the consequences of the increasing hostility all the more so because both sides possess nuclear weapons.
