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Friday, Jun 25, 2004

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Opinion - Leader Page Articles

When neighbours talk

By Amit Baruah

In India-Pakistan talks, "fixing" is legitimate, even necessary, to keep the dialogue process on track.

IN CRICKETING parlance, the just-concluded talks between India and Pakistan can only be described as "fixed." Actual talks were spread over just four-and-a-half hours on June 19-20 as experts took forward their discussions on nuclear confidence-building measures.

"Fixing" in cricket, of course, cannot be condoned. But if success is to be achieved between India and Pakistan on the dialogue table, long years of experience show that previous discussion, exchange of drafts and finishing touches during the formal meeting form the recipe for forward movement. In India-Pakistan talks, "fixing" is legitimate, even necessary, to keep the dialogue process on track.

Though the details of how the nuclear CBM talks were "fixed" before hand are not being given out by either the Indians or the Pakistanis, the direct contacts between the National Security Adviser, J.N. Dixit, and his Pakistani counterpart, Tariq Aziz, have had a lot to do with the "forward movement" that has been achieved.

Also, there have been several telephone calls between the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri, which have ended the tensions and exchange of words that marked the first few days of a new Congress-led coalition Government in New Delhi.

In the unfolding India-Pakistan talks, there will be as many as 14 bilateral contacts at the level of experts, officials dealing with specific issues, Foreign Secretaries talking Kashmir and peace and security and Foreign Ministers meeting face-to-face to push the dialogue process forward between mid-June and end-July.

On Monday, Mr. Natwar Singh and Mr. Kasuri had lunch with each other in their first bilateral meeting, in Qingdao, China, since the new Government took office towards the end of May. Presumably, they will have a lot to discuss, especially the June 27-28 meeting between the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan.

If the nuclear CBM talks can be considered as a minor litmus test of India-Pakistan intentions, then the Foreign Secretary-level talks definitely fall in the major category. For, in these talks, an issue that the Pakistanis like to describe as "core" or close to their heart, Kashmir, will be the subject matter of discussions.

Mr. Natwar Singh and Mr. Kasuri will also be meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Jakarta on July 1-2 and then again when the SAARC Council of Ministers meets in Islamabad on July 20-21.

The two countries now have an unprecedented opportunity to address their differences.

But the danger of Kashmir looms ahead. In an interview to The Sunday Telegraph, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, was quoted as saying that if there was no movement on Kashmir, there could be no movement on confidence-building measures.

This is a classical Pakistani position, from which General Musharraf departed when he met the then Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in January this year.

And, here is the concession from the Pakistani side in the January 6 joint press statement. "The two leaders [Gen. Musharraf and Mr. Vajpayee] are confident that the resumption of the composite dialogue will lead to a peaceful settlement of all bilateral issues, including Jammu & Kashmir, to the satisfaction of both sides."

In any negotiation, progress for both sides can only take place on the basis of compromise. The General can be advised to drop his Kashmir-or-nothing approach, because it does not form part of the January spirit that led to a breakthrough between the two countries.

Kashmir cannot be a bilateral issue and a subject matter for plebiscite simultaneously. India-Pakistan talks cannot be held hostage to simply making "progress," as defined by Pakistan, on Kashmir. Territorial ambitions on Kashmir, especially the Valley, have no space in any dialogue between India and Pakistan.

There have been too many flip-flops on the part of both Pakistan and India as far as talking or not talking to each other is concerned. The first commitment must be to the dialogue process and to achieve the possible.

Already, senior Pakistani officials have told this correspondent that Islamabad is expecting progress on Kashmir when the Foreign Secretaries meet on June 27-28. Presumably, this issue would have also figured in the Natwar Singh-Kasuri meeting in Qingdao.

India and Pakistan, their nuclear reality and tensions have caused enough trouble to South Asia and the rest of the world. It has taken a while for the two countries to reach where they have after a near war-like situation in the whole of 2002.

The way forward in Kashmir is to talk seriously on doing things like putting the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service in place, not strive to achieve territorial gains on the negotiating table. A via media must be achieved to "fix" the Kashmir compulsion for Pakistan and yet move forward in every sphere of our bilateral relationship.

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