Opinion A visit to Pakistan

Responding to charges that the nuclear deal would undermine India’s foreign policy and national security,Singh pointed to the experience of reforms in the first decade of the 1990s,when he opened the Indian economy to globalisation despite the massive fears at home. Taking some risk then put the nation on a high growth path and elevated its international position.

The PM’s readiness to take risks again,one hopes,is not limited to the making of economic policy. India’s diplomacy,especially towards its neighbours,could do with some risk-taking of the kind Singh demonstrated in transforming relations with the United States during his first term as PM.

Through his tenure as PM,Singh consistently articulated a bold vision for regionalism in the subcontinent. Persisting with the good neighbourly policy that he had inherited from Atal Bihari Vajpayee,Singh added a vital economic dimension to it and made some big political moves.

But at critical moments,Singh preferred caution to courage. Consider the many paradoxes of his Pakistan policy. Few prime ministers before him have invested this kind of effort into transforming relations with Pakistan. Yet he has tied himself in knots over the simple question of making a visit across the border.

Vajpayee,accused of leading a “Hindu nationalist” government,travelled to Pakistan twice in his six years at the helm (1998-2004). But Singh is still wringing his hands in the ninth calendar year of his prime ministership. The “secularist” Congress appears to have deep reservations about Singh’s visit to Pakistan. Vajpayee had to confront similar objections from his BJP colleagues in the cabinet,not to mention the RSS. Yet he took risks by defying the conservatives in his party while framing his Pakistan policy.

Singh went much farther than Vajpayee in exploring solutions to such thorny issues as Siachen and Sir Creek. He embarked on substantive negotiations on the Kashmir question,for the first time in four decades,with Pakistan. Singh has also negotiated a road map for the normalisation of bilateral trade with Pakistan and concluded an agreement to liberalise a four decades-old restrictive visa regime with Pakistan. Compared to what has already been done,the case for visiting Pakistan is an open and shut one.

Singh’s reluctance to take risks has been even more tragic in the case of Bangladesh. Having found a forward-looking partner in Sheikh Hasina,who became the prime minister of Bangladesh in 2008,Singh launched a bold effort to resolve all outstanding issues with Dhaka in 2010. At the very moment this unprecedented effort was to bear fruit — during his visit to Bangladesh last September — Singh held back,unwilling as he was to confront the tantrums of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

As the prime minister of the republic,Singh had every right to sign the Teesta River waters agreement with Bangladesh that was crafted with much care. Yet the PM buckled. As a result,a transformative moment in the ties with Bangladesh was lost. So was a transit agreement with Dhaka that would have significantly contributed to economic growth in West Bengal and in the Northeastern states.

One important consequence of Singh’s hesitations on Pakistan and Bangladesh has been the weakening of the PM’s sole prerogative to conduct of India’s external affairs. He has let the bureaucracy and state leaders exercise a veto over foreign policy decisions. If he accepts his own advice on taking calculated political risks and showing some political courage in defence of the national interest,the PM can easily reclaim his leadership on the foreign policy front.

Announcing a visit to Pakistan will put pressure on the establishments of both sides to produce some substantive outcomes. On Bangladesh,the PM must look for the earliest opportunity to sign the Teesta and transit agreements that will boost the prospects for the eastern subcontinent as a whole.

To be sure,bold initiatives towards neighbours will draw political flak. But it is a controversy that the PM would want to welcome. For it is a rare opportunity to contrast the PM’s bold vision for the nation and the region with the crass opportunism of the opposition parties.

The PM can count on the BJP to oppose the Pakistan visit (the party has no desire to recall the visits of Vajpayee and Advani to Pakistan) and the Trinamool Congress to simulate outrage. But the PM can also bet on the left parties’ support for his regional peace initiatives.

Singh can gamble even bigger on China. While there are many strategic contentions between Delhi and Beijing,on the economic front there is much complementarity waiting to be exploited. The PM should actively attract Chinese FDI into infrastructure development and allow Beijing to develop special economic zones in India. The left parties might oppose FDI from the West but will not utter a squeak against Chinese money.

The PM could go a step further and offer to develop joint projects with China in our neighbouring countries to promote connectivity and integration within the subcontinent as well as between South Asia and the abutting regions.

Put simply,taking bold diplomatic initiatives towards the neighbours is smart domestic politics,sensible economics,and a wise national strategy.

The writer,a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation,Delhi,is contributing editor for ‘The Indian Express’

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