Recently in Parliament I raised the issue of our policy towards Pakistan. Without a doubt, all Indians, except a lunatic fringe on both sides of the border, would like the establishment of peace and amity between India and Pakistan. Both countries need to focus on economic development and the elimination of poverty, and reduce the sterile expenditure on waging war, proxy or otherwise.
However, this being said, even the pursuit of peace needs a strategy, a policy framework, a consistency of approach. Without it, neither the interests of peace nor the interests of India will be served. My concerns relate to the evidence, thus far, of the absence of policy towards Pakistan, and the inexplicable waffle and ad hoc-ism that has been the hallmark of the current government’s response to Pakistan.
Let us analyse the sequence of events since the new government came to power in May this year. Throughout the election campaign the current Prime Minister took an exceptionally hard line towards the then government’s policy towards Pakistan. He was at his acerbic best castigating the United Progressive Alliance government for being soft towards Pakistan, and, on more than one occasion, said that to even talk to Pakistan when our soldiers are being beheaded by the Pakistan Army, and the perpetrators of the dastardly Mumbai attacks have not been brought to book, is an act of policy-less cowardice.
But on coming to power, what is the first thing he does? He invites Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his swearing-in ceremony, along with other leaders from South Asia.
In itself, this was probably a good gesture, showing a new commitment to rebuil-ding ties with our immediate neighbours. But it is worth bearing in mind that this initiative appears, in hindsight, to have been more in the nature of an impulsive act rather than a carefully thought out strategic move within the ambit of a considered policy framework, especially since there was at that time neither a foreign minister in our country, nor a national security adviser, and not even a Cabinet.
Moreover, if it was merely a goodwill gesture without getting into the acrimony of the differences with Pakistan, the goal was defeated by a rather hostile and attacking press conference by the ministry of external affairs while Mr Sharif was still in Delhi.
Mr Sharif, we are told, did not raise the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in deference to the goodwill nature of his visit. But our attack on his country’s policies, in spite of this restraint on his part, robbed him of all support in Pakistan, and almost uniformly every section, including the media, attacked him for capitulating to India. The result was that what was meant to be a goodwill gesture ended up further strength-ening the hard line lobby against India in Pakistan.
Not surprisingly, in the two months since this new government came to power, there have been as many as 19 ceasefire violations by Pakistan in J&K. It is well known that such unprovoked attacks are primarily meant to provide diversionary cover for the infiltration of militants and terrorists into the Valley. The increased terrorist attacks within the Valley are proof of this. Only last week there was a daring attack by terrorists on a Border Security Force column in south Kashmir which led to six personnel being injured; this was quickly followed by another attack in Srinagar itself.
Our armed forces are valiantly seeking to counter this terrorist violence. But retaliatory activity, or forward pre-emption, needs clarity of policy at the highest political level. Unfortunately, this appears to be absent.
On June 13, 2014, our foreign ministry issued a statement that “peace on the border is a pre-condition for normal relations with Pakistan”. Two days later, raksha mantri Arun Jaitley reiterated this resolve while in Jammu.
Ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control must stop, he said. None of this had any effect. In July, there were eight ceasefire violations, and August, thus far, has seen an equal number, including the attack on our armed forces within the Valley, and attacks on civilians in Srinagar.
The government’s reaction to these continued provocations has been, frankly, quite inexplicable. From taking a public position in June that peace on the border is a precondition for normalisation of relations, it has, in the face of the blatant violation of this peace by Pakistan, gone ahead, in a complete reversal of its stand, to announce foreign secretary talks in Islamabad on August 25.
The last time talks at this level took place was in September 2013. These were suspended in January 2013 because of repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan. Now, when the frequency of these attacks is continuing unabated, this government, which came to power advocating the need for firmness in dealing with Pakistan, has reversed the earlier policy of suspending such talks.
Moreover, the foreign secretaries of our two countries will meet without any specific agenda. They are not proposing to restart the composite dialogue. Their meeting is supposedly only meant to be a one-off exercise on “talks about talks”.
Pakistan has consistently followed a policy of tactical appeasement accompanied by explosive aggression. The criticism of the previous government was that it merely followed a reactive policy, undecided on which to respond to, without a cohesive policy framework that anticipates both. There is no harm in talks or negotiations or other engagements so long as these are part of a carefully considered strategic vision. Thus far, this government has given no evidence that it has one.
Author-diplomat Pavan K. Varma has been recently elected to the Rajya Sabha
