Will Thimpu mark the way forward in Indo-Pak ties? Nilova Roy Chaudhury says that India will look to begin a process to 'normalise' Indo-Pak ties.
India is looking towards "unlocking processes" and exploring "doables" to revive the stalled dialogue with Pakistan, officials said on Friday, as Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao prepares to meet her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir next week in Thimpu.
The Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers met last April in the Bhutanese capital, on the sidelines of the SAARC summit, and appeared to chart a fresh roadmap for a dialogue process to re-start, but Islamabad's failure to act on bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 26, 2008 to book has kept a revival process in abeyance.
The bilateral peace dialogue was stalled by New Delhi after the heinous attack that killed 166 people.
"We have to talk," an official said, referring to the need to try and begin a process of negotiations to "normalise" India-Pakistan relations. "We have to keep at it," the official said, but countering terrorism is "an immediate, very real concern. We can't wish it away."
Among "doables," officials said, were a judicial commission on how to deal with fishermen who stray into each others' maritime boundaries, enhanced trade and investments and a resolution to the Sir Creek issue.
However, Pakistan's resolve to counter terrorism is really the key as far as India is concerned. While India is aware that the civilian government in Islamabad does not hold all the keys and the army there is, by General Ashfaq Kayani's own admission, "India-centric" in its approach, India has made a conscious choice to only deal with the civilian government in Islamabad.
"The army is part of the government," officials acknowledged, but "we engage only with the civilian government" in Pakistan, tending to limit the scope of deliverables, certainly vis-a-vis India. India has frequently accused parts of the Pakistani "establishment", a euphemism for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) component of the Pakistan armed forces.
Speaking to a group of Afghan journalism students earlier this week Rao said, "Pakistan has created the Frankenstein. They will have to deal with it."
"Frankenstein creates an artificial human being. But the creature turns out to be dangerous," Rao said, referring to the spate of terrorist attacks within Pakistan.
In the 19th century novel, Frankenstein's monster turned upon its master, making the analogy to Pakistan's internal turmoil even more apt.
"The sickness is there. They have to cure it. They have to root out this evil," Rao said in uncharacteristically strong language, while responding to Afghan queries.
In a veiled reference to the powerful ISI agency in Pakistan, Rao said although the people there generally wanted to live a life free from terror but some groups and "elements in the state of Pakistan" were prone to violence.
"I am sure the people of Pakistan want peace. But there are some groups and people who think violence is the way. There are elements in the state of Pakistan who have not done anything (to tackle terror). In fact they have allowed it to grow," she said.
Rao told the Afghan students that the Pakistan government was aware of this.
India's frustration with Pakistan's civilian government was clearly visible through these statements by the normally very circumspect foreign secretary.
Adding to the Indian frustration would be the strong statements made by Zamir Akram, Pakistan's Ambassador at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, who has refused to allow talks on a universal Fissile Materials Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) because of the United States-India civilian nuclear deal which, he claimed, were "undermining the validity and sanctity of the international non-proliferation regime, these measures shall further destabilise security in South Asia."
The Indian foreign secretary has held several telephonic conversations with her Pakistani counterpart over recent weeks and will, during their meeting in Thimpu, also on the sidelines of a meeting of top diplomats from countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), aim to work on an agenda for future talks leading up to the visit of Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureishi to New Delhi, possibly in March.
Prior to the meeting of SAARC Foreign Secretaries and Foreign Ministers in Thimpu (Qureishi will not attend that meeting), Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to visit India and provide his perspective on the situation within Afghanistan, his government's development activities and his government's efforts to tackle terrorism there, a great deal of which is fuelled also from Pakistan.
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