As India prepares to engage Pakistan again, Delhi should have no expectation at all of achieving substantive results in the near future or persuading Islamabad to dismantle its terror machine any time soon.

Why should we, then, talk to Pakistan? After all, Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh during his first term and his two predecessors--Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Inder Kumar Gujral -- have all tried to build a different relationship with Pakistan, but found themselves deeply disappointed.

The answer is that it is in India's interest to persist with an effort to change the nature of Pakistani state. Not talking to Pakistan does not in any case lessen the conflict or remove the sources of hostility across the border. We might turn our back on Pakistan; but Islamabad won't look away from us. A permanent separation, happy or otherwise, has never been on the cards.

It would have been much simpler if we could defeat Pakistan in a war and force peace on our terms. The current nuclear balance of terror between the two countries rules out such a course.

Where does that leave us? That India needs a genuine reconciliation with Pakistan is undeniable. That enduring peace in the Subcontinent is not realisable in the near term is also evident. Our new approach to Pakistan, then, must be 'engagement without short-term expectations'. This involves an important change in our assumptions about Pakistan -- that Islamabad is a rational actor which pursues its enlightened self interest.

... contd.