Advani sees India, Pak forming confederation to resolve issues

Asked if he believed this was a possibility, he replied, “A day will come, I think so. But it would be a confederation of two sovereign countries by mutual agreement.”

Pakistan’s insistence on describing the Kashmir dispute as the core issue in bilateral ties “will not solve issues” and other matters like trade, commerce and cultural ties should precede Kashmir, he said.

Advani, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, said he had never subscribed to the “normal logic that unless Kashmir is solved, India-Pakistan relations cannot be cordial”.

Asked what he would do to resolve Kashmir if the BJP won the next election and he became Prime Minister, Advani replied he would take steps to ensure “that the infrastructure for terrorism that is there in Pakistan would be dismantled”.

“Even the foreign countries have consistently pressed on Pakistan to dismantle that infrastructure. Unfortunately that has not happened. I would like that to happen and I would like the dialogue to be really substantial, in which trade, commerce, culture, information, all these issues are tackled in a manner as to make the two countries come closer to each other,” he said.

“Jammu and Kashmir also should be sorted out but it would take time,” he said. “My bottomline on Kashmir is that let other issues come first and Kashmir later.”

“For nearly 50 years, the two countries have taken diametrically opposite stands on this (Kashmir) issue. You can’t sort (the issue in meetings lasting) two or three days. It will take a long time,” Advani, who was born in Karachi, said.

“Therefore the approach needs to be that, irrespective of the time it takes to sort out any dispute, there will be no recourse to arms by the two countries to sort out any issue,” he said.

Advani said the peace process between the two countries had stalled only because of the cross-border terrorism.

While acknowledging that militancy had decreased along the borders, he said it was still there in India.

The composite dialogue between India and Pakistan must continue addressing the Kashmir issue and the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, he said.