 |
||
|
||
|
||
Not unless Pakistan gives itself a government responsible to the people
We have been discussing Kashmir off and on for half-a-century without any result. There is no point in heads of government meeting, re-stating their old positions, finding the gulf unbridgeable and then going home, sadder and no wiser. Summit meetings raise hopes, and when these expectations are stymied, there is recriminations and matters get worse.
The reason why indo-Pakistan relations don't improve is that both countries have different kinds of government. In India, the Centre's writ runs - with the people, the military, everybody. In Pakistan, you are never sure whether its writ will run. In India, even a civil Emergency in 1975 was strongly resented and firmly rebuffed in 1977. In Pakistan, dismissal of an elected government and installation of a military one is widely welcomed! Sovereignty in Pakistan does not lie with its parliament, if any; it lies with the mullahs, the military and America.
Two years ago, when Vajpayee took the bold initiative of bus diplomacy, hopes rose high. But before long, there were many flies in the ointment. Pakistan's army, navy and air force chiefs declined to greet the Indian Prime Minister. Instead, burning buses greeted him. The CIA chief said the Vajpayee-Sharif talks would not succeed. The clergymen washed the Minar-e-Pakistan “polluted” by Vajpayee's visit. And before long, the military had deposed and arrested Nawaz Sharif
Before Kargil, Nawaz Sharif had conveyed to New Delhi that he was trying to forge Indo-Pakistan friendship but India should see to it that he did not meet the fate of Mujibur Rahman, who had forged Indo-Bangladesh friendship. Nawaz Sharif was not murdered a la Mujib; but he met his political nemesis alright.
A trusting India gave Pakistan a generous peace in 1972; we returned almost 90,000 prisoners of war on Bhutto's promise - that Pakistan will never again raise the Kashmir issue. But what followed? A bloody proxy war.
Benazir Bhutto as prime minister told the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation: “The West is backing Islamic militants” (vide The Times of India, Nov. 29, 1995). The following day, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao told the Congress Parliamentary Party that “The US desires continued J & K militancy” (vide the Hindustan Times Nov. 30,1995).
US's pro-Pakistan “tilt” is a semi-permanent fixture. No wonder observers of the Pakistani scene note that that country cannot be understood unless you recognise that the US ambassador in Pakistan is a kind of Viceroy of Pakistan. Pakistanis are not exactly fond of either the mullahs or the US, which is in effective control of Pakistan. Unless Pakistan gives itself a government responsible to the people and not held captive to the mullahs, the military or Washington - it cannot have realistic negotiations and lasting peace with India.
Benazir has said she does not mind the LoC as international border. What is Musharraf's stand on this issue? Let him make it clear.
In 1968, Arshad Hussain, then foreign minister of Pakistan, visited Beijing. He was accompanied by foreign secretary Sultan M. Khan. In his Memories and Reflections, Sultan reports Mao asking them: “Tell me what is the deference between you and the Indians? You look alike to me. Aren't you only temporarily separated from the Indians?” What was clear even to distant Mao, is not clear to Pakistan. Indians and Pakistanis are blood brothers. They have separated, but they don't cease to be brothers. Let them remain separate; scrambled eggs cannot be unscrambled. But they don't have to keep quarrelling and fighting.
Let the two sides conduct quiet diplomacy; work out a solution, if they can. And let the two heads of government sign and seal it, when it comes through, with solemnity. Until then, there is no point in leaders meeting infructuously. It will be reminiscent of the British MP who stood up to speak and said, “I conceive... I conceive... I conceive” only to elicit the remark: “The Hon'ble member has conceived thrice and delivered nothing”.
(K. R. Malkani is BJP's Rajya Sabha
MP)
|
||
|
||
|
||