Obdurate India

The much talked about meeting of foreign ministers of India and Pakistan along the sidelines of the UN General Assembly resulted in little progress. Dawn reported on September 28: “After extensive two-hour talks, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna admitted the two sides failed to fix a date for the resumption of dialogue suspended after the Mumbai attacks. ‘They understood our position and did not insist on fixing a date,’ said the Indian foreign minister. Qureshi said: ‘I think India is stuck in a groove. Pakistan has moved on... I feel there is room to move forward. I am here to act on the decision taken by the two PMs at Sharm el-Sheikh that the foreign ministers will meet to carry the dialogue forward, because according to Dr Singh, that is the only way forward.”

Backchannel diplomacy

The idea of backchannel diplomacy was also ignored by India, as Dawn reported: “He (Qureshi) said India had rejected a Pakistani proposal for the backchannel diplomacy... Yet, both sides insisted the talks were ‘positive, frank and useful’.” Daily Times quoted Krishna: “Front channels are open for diplomacy... backchannel diplomacy is not needed.” Dawn added Qureshi’s reply: “If they want a front channel, we are more than happy to do so... Pakistan had put forth this proposal to help overcome India’s reluctance to engage in open talks with Islamabad.” Daily Times, in its September 29 editorial made a three-point analysis of Pakistan’s expectations from resuming dialogue with India: “1. If Pakistan is calling for talks, what does it want from them? Does it need them to get India to move towards an overhaul of bilateral relations, or does it want a resumption of the long-stalled ‘composite dialogue’ just for the sake of talking? 2.Does Pakistan need the dialogue more than India? If that is the case, then, it will have to give ground rather than expect India to conform to strict ‘reciprocation’. 3. A re-examination of the regional status quo among the stakeholders in Pakistan must be conducted before resuming talks... If disputes are not settled, what are Pakistan’s options? The ‘composite’ dialogue ran out of wind despite the bilateral ‘equalisation’ of the nuclear test in 1998. Will it start breathing now when the world is siding with India?”

... contd.