Track as tightrope

It is said that there is no way to peace, peace is the way. Unfortunately, embarking upon an actual peace process is not so simple. For a peace process to succeed each side must be committed to peace. But each side also likes to come away from any process with a sense of having gained something. Coming up with a formula that allows both sides to declare victory isn8217;t easy. The Indo-Pak peace process faces this challenge.

India is right to insist that any withdrawal of troops must be contingent upon a decrease in terrorism in J038;K. But there is a larger question that India will have to confront. What can India offer that will allow President Musharraf to walk away with the sense that Pakistan gained something from the process? This is the question that must exercise the Union external affairs minister, Natwar Singh, as he prepares for his Pakistan visit in early October. His recent meeting with his Pakistan counterpart, Khurshid M. Kasuri, has introduced some clarity into the process after the earlier cross-connections last week. The fact is that India holds all the trump cards: it exercises sovereignty over Kashmir and it will not accede to any territorial readjustment. If anything, Pakistan will have re-adjust its claims more than India. Pakistan8217;s only bargaining counter is the threat of violence and indeed it has often supported violence to further political goals. In a purely formal sense, India does not owe Pakistan anything. But the political reality is that any leadership inside Pakistan would like to show that they got something in return for fundamentally altering their long held positions.

But this should be used as an opportunity to think creatively about what is it that India can offer Pakistan without compromising its core interests. On the Pakistani side, Musharraf will have to prepare the Pakistani establishment to accept that a significant alteration in itstraditional position is not a loss but a gain for Pakistan. Only when these two parallel processes inside India and Pakistan meet, will there be enduring peace. Public opinion in both countries may be more supportive of intelligently crafted concessions than the leadership in both countries assumes.