EDITORIAL: Prime Minister Imran Khan’s revelation that meaningful talks with India were not possible as long as BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) was in power there stands in stark contrast to his position just before the Indian election in 2019, that BJP’s victory provided a better chance for peace.
Back then he believed that if the Congress Party formed the government it would be apprehensive about pursuing peace with Pakistan out of fear of a backlash from the right. “Perhaps if the BJP - a right-wing party - wins, some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached,” he told foreign journalists in April 2019.
Now he hopes to return to the negotiations whenever India has a “rational government with which resolution of disputes could be sought through logical and sane discussions.” But if it’s just not possible to talk peace with BJP, and Congress might not want to take this particular bull by the horns because it would rather not trigger the Hindutva brigade, then which party is the prime minister waiting for to head a government in a country like India?
Perhaps Islamabad is looking at this situation through the wrong prism. It’s a well-established fact, after all, that nations have neither permanent friends nor permanent enemies, only permanent interests. Therefore, since peace is ultimately in the interest of all countries, neither India nor Pakistan should completely close the window for talks regardless of the political temperature at any one point in time. A valuable lesson in this regard can be drawn from what is called the ‘Nixon in China moment’, when the then US president’s political gambit of befriending China, in the hope that it could be used as a bulwark against the then Soviet Union, paid rich political dividends. And that was made possible not because one or the other party was willing or unwilling, but because the final agreement was worthwhile for both.
PM Imran Khan’s earlier observation that BJP would be better able to sell the idea of peace to India’s hardline segments was correct. But his later conclusion that BJP’s extremist ideology rules out any possibility of peace while it is in power seems to miss the mark. Because it is very much possible for the Modi administration to want to agree to peace terms with Pakistan in the future, especially if its economic and diplomatic policies fail and it becomes desperate for something tangible to add to its resume. Therefore, our government as well as the so-called establishment should be very clear about how they would want to proceed with the give-and-take that follows. The Nixon initiative again provides a fitting example because while the proposed thaw with China did not have many backers very early on, it still delivered him a thumping election victory.
Politics has been called the art of the possible with good reason. If Pakistan and India have come close to peace once, they can do it again. Former foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri has repeatedly pointed out how the two countries were “within a signature” of settling the Sir Creek issue, with other lined up to follow, but the then Indian PM Dr Manmohan Singh could not make the historic visit to Islamabad to sign on the dotted line because of the anti-Musharraf lawyer movement that broke out. In politically explosive times like the present, the need to protect small windows that can ultimately deliver peaceful solutions to long-standing complex problems is all the more important. But such manoeuvring requires skilful diplomacy, therefore it is crucial for both capitals not to make statements that border on diplomatic extremism.
It is understandable why the present government would not want to go knocking at Delhi’s door for more peace talks just yet, since its earlier offer was so unfairly snubbed. But that does not mean that it should not be open to the idea of the same peace talks if the Indians finally come round to them.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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