K.V. SEETHARAMAIAH
Need for India-Pakistan dialogue has revisited with the realization of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that war is no option. This is indeed a pragmatic view. War does not benefit anybody. Warring nations have everything to lose but nothing to gain. Even powerful countries lose to some extent. It is sensible when Sharif said ” God forbid, if there is nuclear flashpoint, who will live to tell what happened?” In the past, Pakistan squandered away the opportunity to hold dialogue when Narendra Modi offered for dialogue soon after he took over as Prime Minister in 2014. Pakistan PM says that despite being a nuclear power, Pakistan is not an aggressor and has nuclear facilities only for defence purposes. Vajpayee time and again said that there will be no first-use of nuclear from Indian side. It means the nuclear power is meant for defence purpose only. If both the nations maintain the same stance for ever, there will no occasion at all to press the nuclear button. Now the governments in Pakistan and India have changed and the people at the helm have also changed. The initiative for dialogue is not unwelcome. India has been consistently maintaining that the Pakistan-sponsored terrorism from its soil against India must stop as a precondition for dialogue. Pakistan is under illusion that terrorism can get what it wants. Dialogue on trade and many other aspects may bear fruit. But on Kashmir issue, Pakistan believes that Kashmir should belong to them for the reason that the Muslims are in majority in Kashmir. Kashmir was once a predominantly Hindu state. India is firm that the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir should come back to India. Hostility between the two neighbours continues so long as Pakistan does not give up its claim over Kashmir. Therefore the dialogue covering Kashmir aspects remains an exercise in futility. As in the past, the US has been backing the dialogue between India and Pakistan. Many times in the past many countries including the US and UK have offered to mediate in the matter for facilitating dialogue and resolution of the Kashmir issue. India has rightly rejected the mediation offer since it is the bilateral matter between India and Pakistan. If terrorism has reduced in Kashmir it is because of the terrorism dealt with iron hand by the Modi dispensation, not because saner counsel has prevailed on Pakistan to stop the terrorism emanating from its soil. Relationship between neighbouring countries should be good. Relationship always strains on boundary and water issues. Boundary and water are such issues that they strain the relationship between district to district, state to state and country to country. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has aptly said that friends can be changed but not the neighbours. It is literally true in the case of nations. But in the case of individuals, neighbour can be changed if such individuals shift to some other place. Dispute always largely arises among the neighbours only. A nation far away from other nation would have hardly any chance for dispute. The US call for Indo-Pak dialogue is good. At the same time, the US would do well to advise Pakistan to sort out all the differences with India after giving up its demand for Kashmir which India cannot countenance.