The Indian ‘no’

What did they expect?

So much for the outside chance of a sit-down on the sideline of the Heart of Asia. Surely nobody at the prime minister’s secretariat, or the foreign office for that matter, really believed the Indians would be taken over enough by Sartaj’s flight to Amritsar to agree to start talking again. If anything, Sartaj’s fear – that India will use the summit on Afghanistan to badmouth Pakistan all over again – will most likely come true. So precious little, if anything at all, is likely to come out of this particular journey. It seems Islamabad’s only purpose behind sending Sartaj over was showing the international community that we want to talk, even in the face of Indian aggression in Occupied Kashmir as well as the LoC and working boundary.

Yet, as much as Sartaj might be doing the right thing by going, isn’t the exercise – of exposing Indian excesses – better served by a more proactive foreign ministry with a more serious formula of reaching out to the international community? The PM’s recent initiative, of sending a good two dozen envoys to foreign capitals, did not turn out to be a smart idea after all. And all that huff and puff at the UN didn’t get much moving either. Perhaps an overhaul of the machinery back home, then, is in order.

Despite PML-N’s denials, foreign policy has been in a mess for quite a while now. And it’s not just the Indians; Islamabad’s relations with many important countries are going south. The dip with the US is no secret. Nor is the hostility with the Afghans anything new. Dhaka, recently, not only hosted Modi’s shocker about the ’71 war, but also joined Delhi in boycotting Saarc in Islamabad. The Iranians, too, were ignored to the point of turning sour before they were given a little delayed attention. Had it not been for the Chinese and CPEC there would not have been much to write home about. The Indian ‘no’ to yet another offer to talk should finally open Islamabad’s eyes. The foreign ministry needs some serious revamping. And it needs it now.