The NDA government’s decision to cancel the foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan scheduled for next week underscores once again the accident-prone nature of the bilateral relationship. It fits in with the long-established pattern in India-Pakistan diplomacy. “On-again, off-again” has been the defining feature of the dialogue between Delhi and Islamabad for more than a quarter of a century. The dialogue has been subject to unpredictable mood swings of the leaders in both capitals. The need to posture before domestic political constituencies has often pushed them to suspend formal conversations. The dialogue has been vulnerable to actions by one side that were wrongly presumed to be below the other’s threshold of tolerance. There were times when one or the other set preconditions for the dialogue.
Yet, there never has been an extended period during the last three decades when there was no dialogue between India and Pakistan. Despite enduring political and military tensions, Delhi and Islamabad have found there is no alternative to keeping on talking. The introduction of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries has meant that they couldn’t afford not to have continuous political communication. Delhi’s decision to call off the talks this time appears different from the previous ruptures in the bilateral engagement. In the past, Delhi suspended talks in the aftermath of a major terror attack on India, but resumed them after a reasonable interval. Delhi’s justification for the latest move has ostensibly come from the Pakistan high commissioner’s step to meet separatist leaders from Kashmir. The NDA government has argued that this amounts to unacceptable interference in India’s internal affairs by Pakistan.
