Sumera B Reshi Peace
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that,” Martin Luther King, Jr. once quoted it. However, in case of India and Pakistan the story is quite contrasting where hate begets hate and love is elusive.
Often there is a stalemate between India and Pakistan and since the partition of the sub-continent; the duo is on toes to punch each other the hardest.
Will their unending hostilities between each other bring peace to the poor and pitiable people? No and never.
These two neighbors hardly sit together and very rarely speak sweet. Soon after Imran Khan took charge of Pakistan, the honeymoon between India and Pakistan began to fade.
Both sides once again began to throw invectives on each other, demeaning the armies of each other and their capabilities. Both the country’s fight on borders, at international fora and on social media. Irritated by Indian response, Imran Khan tweeted that “all my life I have come across small men occupying big offices who do not have the vision to see the larger picture.”
This time the resentment between India and Pakistan took to a new level when Pakistan labelled Hizbul Mujahideen’s poster boy Burhan Wani as a ‘freedom fighter’ by featuring him in a series of commemorative stamps.
The postal stamps were released by Pakistan on 24 July but it was confirmed by Pakistan officially after Imran Khan took the reins of his country.
This move by Pakistan irritated India like a chilli powder. Therefore, India decided to call off the talks between Sushma Swaraj, foreign minister of India and Shah Muhammad Qureshi, Swaraj’s counter-part.
Nonetheless, India abandoned talks with the reason that two deeply disturbing developments” — the “brutal killings” of security personnel by Pakistan-based entities and the release of “postage stamps glorifying Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani who was killed by Indian security men in July 2016.”
Initially the Indian government accepted Pakistan’s proposal for a meeting of foreign ministers on the sidelines of United National General Assembly (UNGA) in New York but a day after cancelled the meeting with the reason that ‘the evil agenda of Pakistan stands exposed’ and the ‘true face’ of Imran Khan, the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, has been ‘revealed to the world’.
Announcing New Delhi’s decision, Raveesh Kumar, official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs said, “Any conversation with Pakistan in such an environment would be meaningless. In view of the changed situation, there will be no meeting between the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan in New York.”
After India announced its agenda for UNGA, Khan termed India’s move as ‘arrogant’ and ‘negative’ in a sharp reaction to the cancellation of talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan.
Khan and Kumar were not enough that the Army Chief General Bipin Rawat jumped the bandwagon. In Jaipur, he said to the reporters that it is time to avenge the kind of barbarism meted out by the neighboring country to ensure the ‘other side feel the same pain’.
Experts believe that General Rawat’s words were not out of patriotic feel rather covering embezzlements allegedly done by the government in Rafale defence deal.
General Rawat’s statement came when hot debate on Rafale defence deal and the associated misappropriation is going on inside the parliament and in media and to bash Pakistan is to divert the attention of hoi polloi.
In response to India, Chaudhary Fawad Hussain, Minister for Information & Broadcasting reiterated his government’s stance that the Army, as well as the current government headed by Imran Khan, are in favor of talks and Pakistan is serious and open to talks with India since Khan resumed power.
But India irked on the stamps carrying provocative messages & images according to them through which Pakistan attempts to inflame emotions in the country against India.
India has shown clear reservation over the postal stamps glorifying Burhan Wani and another one which illustrated the human shield incident in which a Kashmiri was tied to an Army jeep in a bid to prevent stone-pelting from attacking the convoy escorting poll officials to safety.
As per the reports, the stamps are on sale on e-bay and that is a matter of grave concern for India.
Besides Burhan’s glorification, India frets and fumes because Pakistani soldiers slit the throat of a BSF jawan near the international border. Further, on 18th September, Head Constable Narender Kumar was killed by the Pakistani Rangers in the Ramgarh sector.
This wasn’t the only case; the killings went on when militants gunned down three policemen on 21 September after they were abducted from their homes in South Kashmir’s Shopian district. These incidents strained the relations between India and Pakistan which are already fragile.
As a consequence, India decided to cancel the talks between Qureshi and Swaraj. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that ‘Indian officials lack mental harmony and it looks like preparations for the forthcoming general elections are underway’. Qureshi added that New Delhi has once again demonstrated hesitation and he was ‘shocked and surprised’ with the development.
“India has priorities other than dialogue and there is a group in the New Delhi that doesn’t want talks to take place,” Qureshi added that if India doesn’t want dialogue, then Pakistan also won’t be in a haste either. “Pakistan extended the offer despite possessing evidence of Indian interference in Baluchistan.”
The BJP fears the backlash if it appears soft on Pakistan. Initially, the BJP-led government portrayed the meeting as a meaningful dialogue but also convey that there won’t be any shift in the hardline Indian stance.
A few days back, Indian Defence Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman acknowledged that they also beheaded Pakistani soldiers at the border but they don’t display the act.
Sitharaman’s assertion shocked all the viewers watching and listening to her words on a TV show. Moreover, experts view the action as a direct violation of the Geneva Convention and customary norms of international law on armed conflict. While there is evidence that such actions have taken place, their illegality is the reason the government has always maintained strict silence over them.
Earlier, India rejected Prime Minister Imran Khan‘s proposal of holding the SAARC summit in Islamabad. Analysts also cite that the use of Pakistan as a foreign demon by the Indian political class has compounded difficulties in resolving the Kashmir issue.
Indian politicians use Pakistan bashing as a tool to divert the public attention as well as hide atrocities in Indian Occupied Kashmir. It seems that Indian politics has again gotten in the way of a meaningful dialogue that could have helped usher in peace between the two arch-rivals.
According to a report published in the New York Times on 4 September 2018, it says that Pakistan is concerned about international isolation and faltering economy, Pakistan’s powerful military has quietly reached out to India about resuming peace talks, but the response was lukewarm.
The move is surprising that Pakistan’s highest institution, the military is reaching out to India. Earlier, they were hard and firm as a rock but now they are soft and flexible. Experts believe that this change of stance is because Pakistan’s military sees the country’s battered economy as a security threat which could aggravate the insurgency that might plague the country which is already tormented. Pakistan is expected to ask the International Monetary Fund for $9 billion in near future. Gen. Bajwa appears moderate towards India than his predecessors.
At home, the government has been criticized over the talks with Pakistan. Spokesperson, the Indian National Congress (INC) Manish Tewari quizzed the BJP government in his tweets. Tewari tweeted, “the current Indian government’s approach to Pakistan is an example of ‘Disastrous Diplomacy’.
Since the inception of India and Pakistan as a separate entity, relations between them have been tense with India accusing Pakistan of not doing enough to stop what it alleges cross-border terrorism. To this, Pakistan always denies the charges and insists that the only way forward is to seek a solution to the problems through dialogue.
Experts cite the recent geo-strategic environment has complicated their already troubled relationship. With India’s growing tilt towards the US and Pakistan’s closeness with China, the trust deficit between Islamabad and New Delhi is also growing. Owing to the past and present aversions in view, analysts are sceptical if the two countries will be able to resume full spectrum of dialogue given the parliamentary elections in India in 2019.
Since 2015 no meaningful dialogue took place between India & Pakistan. In 2015, Premier Modi made a surprise visit to then-Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif in Lahore. The talks were called off then as well after India alleged that Pakistani militants attacked Indian military base. Since then the stalemate continues.
However, India has been open to peace talks on the conditions if Pakistan stops its covert support for groups that strike inside India. The US has also called on Pakistan to end support for terrorist groups which Pakistan has consistently denied that it supports such groups.
The two arch-rivals have had tense relations since the partition of British India in 1947. The principal point of contention is Kashmir, where Indian and Pakistani troops still trade fire across a disputed border and the Kashmir determines the future course of action. But both India and Pakistan should look beyond Kashmir as its own populace is suffering. Especially Modi et al should think beyond 2019 elections because people matter not the election or a party.
