Citing Pakistan's New Delhi-based high commissioner's meeting with a Hurriyat leader as provocation India has called off foreign secretary-level bilateral talks due in Islamabad on August 25. According to media reports, 'within minutes' of Syed Shabbir Shah's departure from the high commission, High Commissioner Abdul Basit received a call from the host country's foreign secretary conveying India's displeasure in 'clear and unambiguous terms'. The high commissioner was told that Indian foreign secretary wouldn't take part in discussions set for the next week after he met with Hurriyat leaders. Islamabad was shocked with the Foreign Office saying the development was 'a setback to the efforts' to the spirit of rapprochement that had come to obtain following a historic Sharif-Modi meeting on May 27 when the two had decided to 'explore how to move forward'. The meeting High Commissioner Basit had with a Hurriyat leader was neither the first-ever, nor was it a hush-hush affair. Such meetings had taken place in the past, always with an idea to get updated on the eve of such Pak-India meetings about the Kashmiri freedom fighters' thinking. So now when the foreign secretary-level talks were about to take place the meeting was not so much out of place. Such an updating was all the more important because, according to political analyst and former ambassador Dr Maleeha Lodhi, "the prevalent thinking in Islamabad is that expectations need to be realistic ... in other words, wishes should not determine Pakistan's approach, but a hard-headed assessment of what is possible and mutually acceptable to move the normalisation process forward". Without factoring in the Kashmiri leadership's position, which is central to any move for normalization, there can be no Pak-India meaningful talks.
Perhaps, the Modi government misunderstood and misinterpreted the high commissioner's announced meetings with the Hurriyat leaders in the context of its determination to win the upcoming state election in the Indian-Held Kashmir. The Hurriyat boycotted the last two elections, and appears more determined to persevere in its mode of denial - so much evident from the cold reception Prime Minister Modi was given during his recent visit. The New Delhi's decision to call off talks in Islamabad may fit Modi's brand of politics but it was too brash and uncalled for - Shabbir Shah says 'he was in New Delhi to support the proposed foreign secretaries' meeting in Islamabad'. Thank God, the Indian foreign secretary limited her justification for cancellation of talks to Pakistan envoy's meeting with the Hurriyat leader; she could very well say she was not coming because of uncertain law and order situation of the Red Zone where she was to meet her counterpart - thus causing a huge embarrassment to the host government! Only recently, the IMF mission cancelled its visit to Islamabad, forcing Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to meet it in Dubai.
Both Sharif and Modi being essentially economic animals it didn't surprise many when they hit it off well in their very first meeting, erroneously believing the way to normalisation falls through a proactive socio-cultural and economic co-operation. Not that they are the first to think on these lines; we have had multi-channel contacts between the two countries active for many years now, but have failed to shed mistrust and defuse propensity to return to square one at the slightest provocation. It is therefore essential that as they explore ways and means to improve quality of bilateralism they should do it in wider context, which the 'composite dialogue' provides. Never mind if it is renamed as 'structured talks', but its eight-point canvas cannot be put aside if the intention is to seal a lasting peaceful relationship - and Kashmir is an inescapable part of it. We won't be surprised if the Modi government is trying to sell to the United States the rising tempo of resistance in the Held Kashmir as a threat to international peace. Little do the policymakers know that Washington would buy it only in return for more active anti-China New Delhi. But that would be a gross travesty of truth in the matter. The Kashmiris are fighting for freedom from Indian occupation and there is no reason for them to give it up - especially now when the world is increasingly being exposed to the truth that struggles, both political and armed, against foreign occupation and suppression don't die - the Gazans' fight back against the relentless Israeli aggression being the latest example.
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