Mr Modi’s initiative in respect of Pakistan is, thus, work in progress.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani (Photo: Twitter)
Given the tortured India-Pakistan story, trysts between leaders of these countries acquire “celebrity” status on the news menu since songs of hope and despair lie embedded in the history of such meetings; and when a meeting is a surprise, the mystique surrounding it deepens. We may, thus, expect the effect of the entirely unexpected — but nevertheless welcome — meet between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on Christmas Day at the initiative of the former to be praised and criticised in equal measure.
It is plain, for instance, that there are going to be no deliverables at the end of the day — not Hafiz Sayeed, not Dawood Ibrahim, nor an end to the ISI-begotten three-decade-old campaign of terrorism against India, as BJP’s partner Shiv Sena reminds us. But it is also plain that while the Indian PM cut a dash as a diplomat as he touched down in Lahore in dramatic fashion, his gesture to arrive in Lahore to wish his Pakistan counterpart on his birthday has the effect of transforming the optics.
And this is good to set the base for dialogue, negotiations, thrashing out differences, calling a spade a spade but resolving to do better in improving ties than before. The end result, of course, is up in the air. Much depends on the calculus and calibrations of Pakistan’s security establishment, over which the country’s elected civilian leadership has no hold. Mr Modi’s initiative in respect of Pakistan is, thus, work in progress. It is a pity that the Lahore dash eclipsed in atmospherics and in news value the far more substantive hours-long stopover of the Prime Minister the same morning in Kabul, where he seized the opportunity to inaugurate the building of the Afghanistan Parliament erected by India. His speech there emphasises India’s resolve to stay — without deadlines — as a supportive friend of Afghanistan for as long as the Afghans seek out Indian cooperation. This is reiteration of existing policy as chiselled through the Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh years, especially the latter.
Its re-statement was called for because the vibrant New Delhi-Kabul nexus had gone limp with the election of President Ashraf Ghani last summer as the new regime turned to Pakistan in a bid to win peace with the Islamabad-backed Taliban. This policy seems to be stalling and Kabul is once more open to re-connect with India. While rejecting Pakistan-backed terrorism in Afghanistan, Mr Modi seems to be innovating in publicly urging the Taliban — without naming them — towards national reconciliation, to abandon the gun and court the ballot box. At the same time, he also called on Pakistan and Iran to work with India in Afghanistan in a spirit of “trust and cooperation”. This move toward Pakistan is a brand new formulation.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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