No Preconditions for Talks with Pakistan but …
During his visit to Kashmir yesterday the Prime Minister of India said that there are no preconditions for talks with Pakistan but Pakistan must curb terror. He mentioned that “the talks cannot make headway unless there is effective control of the terror groups operating in that country”. His comments are to some extent contradicting each other. If Pakistan has to curb terror for the talks to make headway then isn’t that a precondition? Statements like these highlight a serious problem that faces the country today. When it comes to critical foreign policy issues like Pakistan, Kashmir or China, India really does not have clear, well thought out policy or set of goals.
The failure to commit to a certain policy has not cost India a lot so far. Since Independence India was a minor player in world politics for the most part. Our economic size relative to other major economies was negligible. But over the last 15 years our economy has grown tremendously. Our profile has changed and people all over the world think that we are a nation that has to be taken very seriously. Our aspirations have grown higher. India today wants to be part of the most exclusive club of all which is to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. But are we prepared? What is our policy on climate change, nuclear proliferation, Iran, or the battle against fundamentalist Islam? The answer is we do not have one. We will make it up as we go and will not make a decision until the very last minute (when I was in school I used to wait till the final day to show and then inform my parents that they have to sign my report card. Only a student with poor grades would do something like this. Nowadays I often wonder how I managed to graduate from one of the best engineering schools in the country!!).
Our problems with Pakistan have existed for almost 63 years. But very few Indians including the Prime Minister, members of his Cabinet or the common folk can articulate what India wants from Pakistan (whether we get what we want is a different matter). Do we want Pakistan to be a democratic nation, our major trade partner or a part of a free trade agreement? A vast majority of people in both countries want peace and friendship. But our Prime Minister thinks that he wants Pakistan to curb terror and terrorists groups if talks can make headway. This comments show confusion and lack of understanding. Pakistan is not a country like the United States or Britain. It is not even like India although we got Independence around the same time. It is a country that is still in a flux. The founding fathers of Pakistan overestimated the power religion would play in the formation of a country. A multicultural and multi-religious society like India is much more united today than a country like Pakistan that is predominantly Muslim. Nation building is still ongoing in Pakistan (India is too but it is much more closer to the finish line)
Any average observer of Pakistan would realize that the Pakistani establishment does not have a lot of control over large parts of its own territory (it is very easy for Indians to understand this because we ourselves do not control about 100 districts in the country. These districts are currently under Maoist control). In other areas the Pakistani army is at war with their own citizens who are aiding the Pakistani Taliban and likes. So the reality is that even if Pakistan wants to stop the terrorists or close down the camps in many cases it cannot.
So our offer to talk as long as Pakistan curbs terror is no offer at all. We should continue to talk at all different levels. One of our primary goals during the negotiation is to make sure Pakistan realizes what it has to gain financially by having a very good relationship with India. One of the key differences between the situation between India and Pakistan and India and China is that there is significant trade between India and China (trade between India and China was $52 Billion in 2008 and it was only about $2.3 Billion with Pakistan). China’s economic growth has benefited many of its neighbors including its rivals in the region Japan and Taiwan. But India’s neighbors including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal are still waiting for us to decide how we want to deal with them trade wise (China has a bigger trade relationship with Sri Lanka than India). It is important that we encourage free trade agreements with these countries fairly quickly before the Chinese influence becomes too strong. Once the economic dependency becomes strong then everything else will slowly fall into place.
Related posts:
- India Proposes High-Level Talks with Pakistan
- India and Pakistan: Freedom vs. Azad
- Lessons India Should Learn From Pakistan
- India and Pakistan: War is not the Answer
- Nehru’s Policy Blunders on China & Pakistan?
Category: News & Government