India has called off the Foreign Secretary level talks with Pakistan and with good reasons. When Prime Minister, Narendra Modi was interviewed by a national television channel just before the election results were out this year, regarding talks with Pakistan, his wry comment was that you cannot hear the conversation in the din of gunshots. This is clearly what has been happening in the Indo-Pak relations. That the separatists of Kashmir are encouraged overtly and covertly by Pakistan to carry out their anti-India tirade and even invited by the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi is a posturing that has riled the Indian foreign policy establishment. While the views of one section of intelligentsia and of the people of Kashmir is that India has lost an opportunity to resolve the Kashmir issue by dropping out of the Secretary level talks, foreign policy mandarins are of the view that you cannot play ball with a neighbour that does not respect the rules of the game.
The Congress has criticised Modi’s action although in its own time, the UPA government conceded considerable ground to Pakistan by holding the infamous talks at Sharm-e- Sheikh despite Pakistan’s repeated ceasefire violations. Narendra Modi is not Manmohan Singh. The former talks and acts tough and can afford to after having been given a massive mandate. The latter has never won an election. Nor has he been instrumental in helping the Congress Party win elections. The festering problems in Kashmir have Pakistani footprints all over. And while the ordinary Kashmiri might say that Azadi that does not mean an alignment with Pakistan, the Kashmiri anti-national elements who seem to call the shots in Kashmir are cosying up to Pakistan. It is not honest diplomacy for a country to be fomenting conflicts in another country. Pakistan has continued to do so with a regularity that does not indicate a change of heart even after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s recent visit. It is inevitable that India would call off the foreign secretary level talks after Pakistan’s provocative actions.
