The Hindu : Substance should back up style

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 23, 2002

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Substance should back up style

A WELCOME TONE of civility was restored to the India-Pakistan interaction in the brief encounter, marked by handshakes and smiles, between the Union Minister for External Affairs, Yashwant Sinha, and Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Inam-ul-Haq, on the sidelines of the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting. It is to be hoped that the new mode of interaction — courteous while being firm on political position and principle — adopted in Kathmandu by two Ministers who have assumed their posts relatively recently, will become the preferred and lasting diplomatic style. The prestige of neither country would be enhanced if the civilities observed at the SAARC Council were merely intended to earn brownie points with Washington at the start of another important visit to the region by the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage. Both India and Pakistan needed to demonstrate before a nervous international community that they were responsible parties trying to soberly resolve a potentially dire confrontation rather than two antagonists who were about to let their bellicosity run out of control.

Although a change in style was the most notable achievement that the two Ministers managed in their brief meeting, they also hinted strongly at changes in approach to some of the nuances of the hard issues in contention at the current juncture. In an apparent climbdown from Pakistan's stance, that the marginal conciliatory measures taken by India were "cosmetic and self-serving", Mr. Haq indicated that Islamabad was following the Indian decision to lift the ban on overflights and could take steps of its own on this matter and in respect of the restoration of transportation links. Mr. Sinha, for his part, appears to suggest some retreat from the hitherto maximalist approach that a complete halt to all cross-border movement is the necessary pre-condition for the resumption of any kind of substantive interaction. India could consider other possibilities, in respect of maintaining the integrity of the LoC, if Pakistan were to openly accept that it was beyond its means to bring a complete halt to cross-border incursions. As Mr. Haq has pointed out, Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, had conceded as much in an interview to a news agency wherein he had pointed out that while some cross-border movement (including by "renegades") might still be going on this was bereft of his Government's support, encouragement or permission. There is however danger that the Pakistan Government and media could read Mr. Sinha's remarks as a statement derogatory of their military's capabilities and let their instincts lead them to a negative response.

Mr. Sinha's instant formula in respect of the potentialities for mutual cooperation was a reiteration of India's proposal for joint patrolling of the LoC by Indian and Pakistani troops. Pakistan is not likely to respond positively to the suggestion. A part of its objection emanates from its long-standing political programme to involve international monitors in the task of verifying whether cross-border infiltration is taking place or not. But Pakistan's other critique, that joint patrolling by the troops of armies that are very hostile to each other is not practicable, is also not without merit. Pre-occupied with the holding of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir as it is, New Delhi is not likely to respond either urgently or positively to Pakistan's demands for the revival of the bilateral dialogue on all outstanding issues and the phasing out of the troop mobilisation on the borders. However, Mr. Sinha's statement does leave open the possibility that New Delhi has other measures to suggest. Perhaps the reinstitution of regular contacts between the Directors-General of Military Operations of the two sides could be a proposal that would prove more fruitful at this juncture.

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