Indian need to respond to Pak diplomatic challenge Pakistan is systematically building up its diplomatic campaign to ‘internationalize’ the Kashmir problem subsequent to the letter written by the foreign and security policy advisor Sartaj Aziz to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in the weekend. Essentially, it is built on a heads-i-win, tails-you-lose’ approach, which will need ingenuous thinking to counter, as the state assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir draw closer. The Indian media have jumped excitedly to a self-serving propagandistic conclusion that Ban hasn’t acted on Aziz’s letter, but then, Aziz didn’t seek ‘action’, either, and that is the crux of the matter. Significantly, Pakistan has not asked for a Security Council meeting. Aziz’s communication to Ban intended : a) to bring to the UN’s attention the increased tensions on the Pakistan-India border and flag India’s culpability; b) to seek UN’s help to defuse the tensions; c) to have his letter circulated amongst the Security Council members so that it is on record in the world capitals; d) to seek that the international community and the UN should advise India to engage Pakistan in dialogue; e) to have the UNMOGIP appointed by Ban to play its due role (despite India pussyfooting); and, most important, f) to jog the memory, so to speak, that there are UN resolutions on Kashmir passed by the Security Council which India has failed to implement. In sum, Pakistan has pulled the Kashmir problem from the backburner to the attention of the world body. Its emphasis, nonetheless, is on bilateral dialogue with India. Now, that is a demarche that no one in the world opinion can quarrel with. To be sure, Pakistan is gaining the high ground on the diplomatic front because it sounds reasonable, conciliatory, mature and is not even demanding that P5 should stand up and be counted. Prime MInister Nawaz Sharif has since brought up the same demand in his conversation with two influential US senators visiting Islamabad who belong to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Sharif repeated that Pakistan and India “can gain only through dialogue” and explained that the unresolved Kashmir problem is a core issue. Of course, Sharif also brought into the limelight the Security Council resolutions on Kashmir — but, as the basis of a settlement that India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris can reach (which is almost ditto the traditional US stance on Kashmir.) The two US senators later met Aziz, who “expressed his concern at the current security situation along the Line of Control.” Thereafter, Aziz also met the envoys of the P5 based in islamabad and “briefed” them on the border situation. Aziz explained Pakistan’s “positive overtures” to the government headed by PM Narendra Modi and its keenness to hold dialogue with India; he expressed disappointment that Delhi cancelled the Foreign-Secretary level talks and went on to resort to “unprovoked shelling and firing”. He expressed concern over India’s ceasefire violations and “the provocative statements by the Indian leadership”; and, interestingly, interpreted the Indian behavior as a ploy to cause “distraction from Pakistan’s counter-terrorism commitments in the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb.” The linkage between the just-concluded Pakistani military operations in Waziristan and the tensions that India is allegedly provoking carries the hint that if these tensions continue, Pakistani military may take its eyes off the Afghan border and instead focus on the eastern border (which of course will impact very negatively on the Afghan security situation with the recent stepped-up Taliban attacks against the backdrop of withdrawal of the US troops.). The fact remains that it took much effort on the part of Washington to persuade the Pakistani military to launch full-spectrum operations in Waziristan. Make no mistahe, the US is a stakeholder in preserving calm on Pakistan’s eastern border with India. Aziz’s demarche with the P5 is essentially a reiteration of the ‘wish list’ he despatched to Ban — Pakistan sounding eminently reasonable and open to dialogue and seeking help to bring India back to the path of reason. In comparison, Modi government’s position so far that it has given a “free hand” to the Indian Army to deal with the border tensions. It’s an incredibly cavalier stance to take in the 21st century — civilian leadership going on sabbatical leaving soldiers to sort of problems. True to style, the government hasn’t cared to explain what this business of “free hand” is all about. Indeed, this “free hand” business only means the Army is at liberty to use up its old ammunition stocks as much as it wants. But what it hopes to achieve remains unclear. The point is, in the nuclear era India’s supremacy in conventional forces has become irrelevant. To my mind, the government is presenting a pathetic sight. India is unable to articulate a coherent position as a mature, thoughtful, conciliatory world power — especially, being a strong claimant to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Nor is it able, on the other hand, to live up to its carefully-cultivated image of being a no-nonsense government which will put fear of god into the Pakistani mind. The External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has not spoken one word until today about this core issue in India’s diplomacy and it has been left to the muscle men in the government to tackle Pakistan (and China) as if this doesn’t require intellectual reserves to be summoned. When India has such a strong case regarding the genesis of the present tensions, as the government has been maintaining all along, why is it in hibernation? Where is the problem? Put it all together and tell the world — if it has a credible a story to tell. We should go on the diplomatic offensive. It won’t do to keep gossiping on TV chat shows and through media commentaries that all this is due to tensions between the civilian and army leadership in Pakistan. Our self-righteousness will not carry credibility, because when it comes to Kashmir issue, there is no daylight possible between Pakistan’s political leaders or between them and the military — and we have known this all along. The fact of the matter is that Pakistan is giving very little space for the hardline Indian leadership to play hide-and-seek. By now, I am sure, foreign envoys based in Delhi would be already making demarches in South Block urging us to talk things over with Pakistan. Now that the Maharashtra election campaign is over, Swaraj should not lose a moment to stand up, step forward and articulate calmly and rationally a coherent,reasonable, persuasive diplomatic stance on how to move forward with Pakistan. As she put it eloquently once, there is nothing like full stop in diplomacy. Swaraj should propose that what happened in these recent weeks is only a semi-colon. And, secondly, she should insist behind the curtain within the corridors of power in South Block that India’s Pakistan policy is her portfolio — and Kashmir problem is every bit her business, too, and that it can’t be handled like cattle fodder during election season. Posted in Diplomacy, Military, Politics. By M K Bhadrakumar – October 14, 2014
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 10:23:15 +0000
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