By warmly welcoming Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at his inauguration and treating him, first among the regional counterparts last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised quite a few in Pakistan and elsewhere. But that bonhomie didn't last very long; within a few weeks his government cancelled the scheduled foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad, accusing Pakistan high commissioner in New Delhi of defying its call not to meet the Hurriyat Conference leaders - a warning he learnt from a television channel ticker just about the time they were expected to arrive. Narendra Modi wants to revive the foreign secretary-level talks now - Islamabad had refused to ask for revival insisting that one who cancelled them should ask for revival - however, without appearing to be doing so. So, to the surprise of many, he called Nawaz Sharif on the eve of Pakistan-India World Cup match, informing him of the Indian foreign secretary's visit under the umbrella of 'Saarc yatra'. But there is a method to this madness, and that madness is the RSS script. RSS point man, Narendra Modi, is expected to follow that clandestine script. The Pakistan-bashing was the central plank of his Bharitya Janata Party's campaign during the Delhi state election. That so soon after this Narendra Modi should offer Pakistan revival of foreign secretary-level talks is a development that suggests that the 'method' is at work again. Having failed to win even a simple majority in the Occupied Kashmir state assembly election for the BJP, the second best option is to be a coalition partner with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But this is not possible unless the BJP meets the PDP demand to engage Pakistan - at least for the optics - because the PDP election manifesto had promised such an engagement as bait to attract vote and capture power in pro-Pakistan Muslim majority Occupied Kashmir. No wonder then the PDP leadership has called Modi's telephonic contact with Nawaz Sharif a 'gigantic step' and 'good omen' for peace in the region.
Narendra Modi had cancelled the secretary-level talks scheduled to take place in Islamabad to woo Hindu vote in Delhi state election. Now when that is behind him, he has offered to revive the same to become part of the PDP-led government in Occupied Kashmir. That Modi is for the glory of cricket in South Asia, or he embraced President Obama's worldview, is all humbug. He is not a free actor; he has to act out word by word and act by act, the script written by the nationalist Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which his BJP is only the political face. The RSS would not like to lose upcoming state elections for Bihar and Bengal assemblies to the 'ordinariness' of parties like Arvind Kerjriwal's Aam Admi Party. The fact is that being merely political façade of the RSS both in domestic and foreign matters, the working of the Modi-headed BJP government is conditioned by the RSS beliefs and convictions. Nawaz Sharif too is not free of such domestic compulsions though his are of different nature. We should recognise these compulsions, and expect of the government leaders on both sides of the common border to rise above the ordinary and find a way forward through the thick, forbidding jungle of contentious past. We would like to hope that Narendra Modi's offer to Nawaz Sharif for revival of talks goes beyond the optics and the two sides set in motion a process of contacts and meetings leading to resolution of bilateral issues and disputes. Maybe, it would look to be at first sight, a time-serving device geared to earn Narendra Modi political advantage in Occupied Kashmir. But his Pakistani counterpart has welcomed the offer, though it was not easy because a day before the DG ISPR had warned of consequences 'if India continued its unprovoked firing across the border, and himself confirmed reports of Indian involvement in fomenting trouble in Pakistan. Talks between the two nuclear rivals is the only way forward; the sooner Modi comes to understand it, the better both for his government and his country.
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