All those expecting something of a breakthrough in Pakistan-India relations are in for a disappointment. The two countries, whose apex diplomats are meeting next month, are not exactly on the same page when it comes to the specifics. In the Eight-point composite dialogue agenda, India wants to include terrorism as one of the two major issues at the top. Pakistan, its valiant struggle against terrorism notwithstanding, is uncomfortable regarding what that would mean.
The diplomatic corps on this side of the border is busy deciphering the mixed signals the Indians are giving. The latter clearly have an upper hand here. Elements within their diplomatic corps argue that India can continue with this stalemate indefinitely; that it is Pakistan that needs to talk to them more than the other way around. A flawed argument, true, but one with a measure of truth in it. At this stage of near-ostracisation on the global level, it would do Pakistan a whole lot of good to mend fences with its eastern neighbor. The relative restraint that the Indians showed in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, coupled with Indias rise as a global player in the global economy, lends them good credibility within the international community at all levels. Furthermore, the present government in India is considered more of a peacenik than its principle political opposition party. Counter-intuitively, that translates into the necessity of baring its teeth once in a while lest accusations of being too soft on Pakistan surface.
All that might be true, and it has to be admitted here that Pakistan needs to take care of the menace of religious extremism more for its own interests than that of other countries. But the Indians should also show some sensitivity to our case. If Pakistani attempts to win over Kashmir have resulted in a Frankensteins monster that now threatens to tear asunder our own social fabric, the Indian states attempt to retain and discipline Kashmir have yielded a republic that uses a level of coercion and fear that is not becoming of the worlds largest democracy.
