Never mind the cynics, Modi has quietly changed its terms of engagement with Pakistan

There appears to be a discernible shift in India’s terms of engagement with Pakistan.

Keen to continue with their peace mission despite the recent Pathankot attack, New Delhi and Islamabad have adopted a twin-track approach to resolve all outstanding issues. Abandoning its earlier rigid stand that “terror and talks” cannot go together, the Modi government has informally delinked the stalled dialogue process from a discussion on terror.

As a result, the discussions on the two subjects will be conducted simultaneously at different levels. While National Security Advisors of the two countries will meet to discuss cross-border terrorism, the foreign secretaries will sit together to take forward the “comprehensive dialogue” (known as composite dialogue in its earlier avatar) which will focus on issues like Siachen, Sir Creek, bilateral trade and Kashmir. Although no time-frame for these meetings has been finalised, it is expected that these will take place in due course.

India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is in constant touch with his Pakistani counterpart Nasir Khan Janjua, with the two exchanging notes on the Pathankot attack. The two first met in Bangkok last December shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif interacted briefly on the sidelines of the climate change summit in Paris. The meeting of the two NSAs was kept under wraps and it was only later that it was officially announced that these discussions covered “peace and security, terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, and other issues, including tranquility along the LoC.”

The secret meeting in Bangkok was held after many hiccups. Before that, the two foreign secretaries were scheduled to meet last August but the talks were called off after India objected to the Pakistan High Commissioner’s meeting with Hurriyat leaders

Subsequently, the two sides failed to forge a consensus on the agenda of their talks. India made another attempt for a meeting in New York last year on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly but it failed to fructify as Pakistan wanted that the foreign secretaries should meet simultaneously to discuss other issues.

This is the first time that India and Pakistan have agreed to such an arrangement. The NSAs of the two countries have not held such bilateral meetings earlier. Till now, it was left to the foreign secretaries of the two countries to sort out the ticklish issues and prepare grounds for further dialogue.

These talks invariably got stalled as New Delhi insisted that Islamabad take action against those responsible for the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai and ensure that Pakistani territory is not used by terrorist groups for their operations against India. On its part, Pakistan insisted that Kashmir was a core issue for them. “It appears there is an attempt to insulate the dialogue process from terror,” remarked a senior political analyst.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did make a brave attempt to improve relations with Pakistan but was unable to see it through. In fact, he came under attack from his own party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was the principal opposition party, for the joint statement inked by India and Pakistan in the Egyptian sea resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009 in which India agreed to de-link the composite dialogue from its demand that Islamabad should crack down on cross-border terrorism, and particularly for the reference to Pakistan having some “some information on threats in Balochistan and other areas”.

While an uneasy Congress had distanced itself from Manmohan Singh’s initiative, the BJP had slammed the former Prime Minister for going back on the country’s stated position on Pakistan with former Union minister Yashwant Sinha going as far as to declare that the “waters of the seven seas will not be able to wash the shame brought on the country through this flawed initiative.”

Changed terms of engagement

Like his predecessor, Modi has also decided to extend a hand of friendship to Pakistan. But unlike Manmohan Singh, Modi has not been stopped in his tracks either by his party or the opposition even though he has quietly changed the terms of engagement.

After a gap of several months, India and Pakistan picked up the threads last month when Modi stunned the world with his brief surprise stopover in Lahore on his way back from Afghanistan to wish Sharif on his birthday and attend his granddaughter’s wedding. The foreign secretaries of the two countries were slated to meet next on January 15 to carry forward the dialogue process which would ultimately pave the way for a fruitful and productive summit level meeting between Modi and Sharif.

The terror attack on India’s frontline air base in Pathankot has undoubtedly delayed these talks but unlike previous occasions, there is a difference this time. The decision was not taken unilaterally. The two countries mutually agreed to defer the meeting without pointing accusing fingers at each other. They also agreed to reschedule the talks at the earliest.

Both sides showed unusual restraint in their handling of the situation. Although India said the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad was responsible for masterminding and executing this latest operation, New Delhi was careful not to blame the Pakistani government. Instead, it handed over dossiers and other proof to Islamabad to enable its investigators to nail the Jaish.

On its part, Islamabad agreed to act on these leads. Sharif chaired several high-level meetings to discuss the situation arising from the Pathankot attack. The Jaish offices were raided while Pakistan even agreed to send a special investigation team to India as part of its probe.

There is no dearth of critics and cynics in both countries who are convinced that the dialogue process will be derailed by the all-powerful army and Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, which have a vested interest in keeping India and Pakistan in a constant state of conflict. However, for the present both Modi and Sharif have decided to give peace a chance.