TALKS BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN

The bilateral talks between the Foreign Secretaries of India Mrs. Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, in New Delhi on 25 February, did not produce any light. It did not produce any heat either. The talks lasted just three hours. Nirupama Rao told the newsmen that the ‘time is not ripe’ for a composite talk with Pakistan. She described the talks as the ‘first step’ towards building confidence between India and Pakistan.

The bomb blast in Pune on 13 February had cast a shadow over the proposed talks. The Indian government dispelling all doubts declared that the talks would be held as per the schedule. All the same the Cabinet Committee on Security told Nirupama Rao to raise the question during the talks. However, none had expected that the talks would yield any result. New Delhi had declared that its focus would be on the issue of terrorism, especially the terrorist activities emanating from Pakistani soil. The Pakistani side said that it would not allow the issue of terrorism to divert the attention from all the other issues.

Till recently the Indian position was that it would not talk to Pakistan unless the latter take effective and visible action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack. Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that Pakistan had not done enough to deal with the terrorist activities from Pakistani soil. Many believe that India softened its stand under pressure from The U. S.

After the talks Mr. Salman Bashir said that Islamabad was of the view that the issue of terror should not withhold the two countries from talking to each other. He said Pakistan wanted a ‘result-oriented and meaningful dialogue’ with India. Islamabad wanted to talk about the ‘core issue’ a euphemism for the question of Kashmir. The sharing of the Indus waters has also become a hot issue between India and Pakistan.

India handed over three dossiers to Pakistan. India expects more cooperation from Pakistan in tracking down the terrorists, India believes, hiding in that country India also demanded that Ilyas Kashmiri, a militant who is said to have connection with the Al Qaeda. He had earlier vowed to disrupt the sporting events in India. However, no one believes that Pakistan would act on Indian request. Chidambaram had said the early March that India had provided ample evidence to prove the involvement of Hafiz Saeed in the Mumbai attack. Salman Bashir described the evidence as ‘literature rather than evidence in legal sense’.

As of now, there seems to be no way out of the stalemate between India and Pakistan.