Opinion - Editorials   

There must be no backsliding

There is nothing in the language of the latest India-Pakistan joint statement to warrant the ill-informed cries of ‘sell-out’ that have rung out at home. What Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yousaf Raza Gilani agreed to in Sharm-el-Sheikh was this. The Foreign Secretaries would meet as often as necessary and report back to the two Foreign Ministers, who, in turn, would review the state of the bilateral relationship on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this fall. If, in the wake of Mumbai and the run-up to Sharm-el-Sheikh, the composite dialogue stood suspended, it remains so after the July 16 joint statement. As Dr. Singh has explained, Mr. Gilani wanted the composite dialogue process to be resumed immediately but the Indian side told him this would not be possible without the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attacks being brought to book. A legitimate question then is: what can be the meaning of this formulation in the joint statement, “Action on terrorism should not be linked to the Composite Dialogue process and these should not be bracketed”? In plain English, this means both processes must proceed on the basis of their own logic, independently of each other. Pakistan must take action against terrorists regardless of whether the composite dialogue process resumes; and India must not link the process of composite dialogue to the quantum of action Pakistan takes against terrorism.

Better phrasing might have suggested that while there would be no unidirectional linkage, there would be a positive expectation of reciprocity. The reality is that Pakistan cannot expect India to resume meaningful dialogue if it does not take credible action on terror; and New Delhi cannot expect a constructive response from Islamabad if it refuses meaningful engagement, especially given the divided nature of the Pakistani establishment. While Pakistan has taken more meaningful action in the aftermath of Mumbai than it has perhaps taken in the past three decades of cross-border terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh feels there is insufficient political and institutional support in India for the resumption of dialogue at this point. That is why he told Mr. Gilani that the dialogue process would have to wait — and the Pakistani side seems to have taken this in its stride. Regrettably, the government is likely to come under pressure to backslide and disown the small steps taken at Sharm-el-Sheikh. The Prime Minister struck the right note in Parliament by clarifying what India expects Pakistan to do but emphasising that the only way forward in the coming months is engagement. This newspaper could not agree with him more — and expects him to hold firm on the course worked out.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

There must be no backsliding
Green shoots of recovery?
Dialogic judicial activism in India
Pakistan and the perils within
Put your money down, boys
Corrections and clarifications
Demeaning
Passing of an icon

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu