Indo-Pak cloud: Delhi won’t give dates for secretary-level talks

This time around the stakes in the peace process, which had advanced considerably since it was launched two and a half years ago, are high. Consequently the Indian response is expected to be calibrated. A graduated reaction rather than precipitous action is likely to mark the Indian approach to Pakistan in the coming days.

By refusing to confirm the dates for the talks between the two Foreign Secretaries that was expected to take place here during July 20-21, the Government has made explicit its displeasure towards Pakistan. When asked specifically about the meeting of the Foreign Secretaries, the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said, “I don’t have any announcement on the dates as yet.”

Trapped between the immediate political imperative of putting Pakistan on notice and potential danger of an unraveling peace process, the government today reviewed a range of potential responses. While walking out of the peace process may not be on the cards for the moment, deferring the Foreign Secretary talks could emerge as the first significant Indian response to the Mumbai blasts. That leaves the two sides to take a deep breath, conduct some consultations through diplomatic channels, and take stock of the basic propositions of the peace process.

That India had to signal its disapproval to Pakistan today was evident once the scale and scope of the Mumbai blasts came to light. India was willing to tolerate a series of earlier terrorist attacks, including those on the eve of last Diwali in New Delhi and others in Varanasi and Ayodhya.

After last night’s mayhem in Mumbai, India could no longer tell itself or the nation that the peace process must be continued, irrespective of growing levels of terrorism.

If there was any thoughts on ducking the difficult issues for the moment, it was made impossible by some ill-advised comments from the Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

“I think the Mumbai incident—however tragic it may be and it is undoubtedly very tragic—underlines the need for the two countries to work together to control this environment, but they can only do so if they resolve their disputes,” Kasuri told Reuters in an interview during his ongoing visit to Washington.

The establishment of a linkage between terrorist violence in India and the resolution of the Kashmir issue by Kasuri, brought forth a ferocious response from the Foreign Office here today. The spokesman called Kasuri’s comments “appalling” and demanded that Pakistan put an end to cross border terrorism. Kasuri’s message was neither new nor surprising. In recent months, the talk in Pakistan on the peace process has been open: “India only understands the language of violence.”

This gathering perception in Pakistan had begun to challenge the central bargain on which the peace process has been built since January 2004: India will negotiate purposefully on Kashmir if Pakistan creates an atmosphere free of violence.

India has kept its side of the bargain. In the talks on Kashmir, both at the Foreign Secretary level and through the back channel, India has put forward a number of new ideas on Kashmir, some of which have already been implemented. But those talks, clearly, can go nowhere if Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf cannot keep his word on ending cross-border terrorism. No wonder the Foreign Office today demanded that Islamabad “fulfil its solemn commitments enshrined in the India-Pakistan Joint Press Statement of January 6, 2004”.