In the last 15 years or so, several Indian Prime Ministers, including Inder Kumar Gujral, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, have had a good relationship with political leaders in Pakistan, including its Prime Ministers.
At times this has made for terrific atmospherics, but that is where it has been stuck. Pakistan’s military did not adopt a constructive approach towards their own political executive seeking to enter areas of positive engagement with their Indian counterparts. In the end, there has not been much to show for efforts by politicians. There were way too many well-organised terror attacks against India, and even a full-scale skirmish in Kargil, humiliating Mr Vajpayee, who had taken a considerable political risk in going to Pakistan. This is a great pity, but life’s woes can be overlooked at the risk of losing public support for continuing engagement.
When Nawaz Sharif was recently elected to power, there was much expectation that the two countries would take matters forward, whatever the end result. What we have seen in recent weeks — the attack on Indian soldiers on our side of the Line of Control by Pakistani troops and terrorist outfits under their tutelage, greatly stepped-up incursions in Kashmir, increased ceasefire violations, including on our Independence Day, and the resolution in the Pakistan National Assembly and Punjab Provincial Assembly attacking India for hostile actions on the LoC — cannot renew that expectation. Indians are perplexed that the aggressor should be hypocritically seeking to cast the blame on the victim.
But this is an old game of Pakistan’s generals that we have grown accustomed to. Nevertheless, we cannot but observe with disappointment that Mr Sharif’s MPs and provincial legislators went along with the anti-India resolution, obliging the Indian Parliament to reply in kind in order to set the record straight. The surprising thing is that even as the hostile resolutions were being passed in Islamabad and Lahore, the Pakistan Prime Minister kept making the right noises, and even expressed the hope that his proposed meeting with Dr Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York in September will not be in jeopardy.
Addressing the nation on the eve of Independence Day, President Pranab Mukherjee said in the context of Pakistan that India’s “patience has its limits”. Speaking at the Red Fort on August 15, Dr Singh noted the difficulties in engaging Islamabad if the targeting of India did not cease. This is quite right. Any thought of keeping the September date is ludicrous.
It can serve little purpose, even if we allow for the assumption that warmongers get active when the peace constituencies try to take even baby steps forward.