With regard to the Pakistan High Commissioners reported meeting with Kashmiri separatist leaders, my first thought was: how would Pakistanis react if Indias envoy there met separatist leaders of Balochistan? Im a strong advocate of good relations with Pakistan and have supported the idea of sustained dialogue with it through ups and downs in the relationship. I also believe that more Indians need to recognise that there is an ever growing constituency across the border who want normalcy, but also that there are powerful sections of the so called deep state in that country whose vested interests would be severely affected by sustained peace between South Asias two largest countries. Recent books by Husain Haqqani, Carlotta Gall and Christine Fair, among many others, explain this lucidly. It really ought to be no surprise that provocations like firing across the LoC (and sometimes more gruesome incidents) are a regular feature before every scheduled bilateral meeting. Another challenge is the decades of brainwashing by Pakistans self-styled uber patriots, which has left large sections of their population confused about such things as the causes of our four wars (and even their outcomes!). Such disinformation continues today in Pakistan, concocting and vastly exaggerating Indian intelligence activities supposedly destabilising that nation, even to the astonishing extent of claiming an Indian hand in their self-created Jihadis who have now turned on them. Not that we dont have our share of the ilk of history revisionists, but sustained democracy and diversity here has confined them to the fringe, and not in positions to veto and overrule popularly elected civilian leaderships. And the reality is that while India has indeed suffered much from cross border terrorism, Pakistans internal violence today is by non-state actors created by their own, the same uber patriots. All said and done, India can neither indefinitely continue a we will suffer all provocations and wounds in the interest of peace stance, nor react to every provocation with a tit for tat response, particularly anything involving gunfire. But in between these extremes are many options to be explored. We must start with the understanding that Pakistan is not a homogenous, unified state, nor even a normal one in the usual sense. The aim should be to pinch where it matters, to the discomfiture of those there who persist in pinching us, while at the same time rewarding with our friendship, and the fruits of that, the increasing number of ordinary Pakistanis who do indeed want peace. jaypanda.in & @PandaJay on Twitter
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 09:44:44 +0000
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