Interview: Kashmir issue must be kept on the backburner

Minister for External Affairs Yashwant Sinha's 12-point diplomatic offensive unleashed at a surprise press conference last week has scored enough brownie points in the Indian media and in the world's chancellories.

In an interview with Gulf News, former foreign secretary Salman Haider gives an appraisal of the latest round of confidence building measures announced by India.

Haider concedes that the proposals are by themselves unexceptionable, but he thinks that it will have a substantial impact on the political process of normalising relations between the acrimonious neighbours at the political level.

Excerpts from the interview:

Gulf News: What is your immediate response to Yashwant Sinha's slew of proposals with regard to improving ties with Pakistan?
Salman Haider: I think the measures themselves are all well-judged and can be pursued – all 12 of them. They are mainly people-to-people measures. They will ease some of the burdens being experienced by the common people on both sides.

This includes proposals like the bus connection between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and allowing older people to walk across the Wagah border in Punjab. In passing I would like to say that these measures address the needs of the voiceless segment of divided families on both sides. There are a million of them on both sides. So these are matters of vital importance.

Is there a reason for the timing of the announcement? Why now?
I find the timing of the announcement a little confusing. We have had a series of negative developments in the last few weeks – acrid exchanges at the UN and the Prime Minister's speech at Panipat where he said that there could be negotiations only about Pakistan Kashmir.

Further, nothing has happened in the bilateral relations which would point to this announcement. We have absurd negotiations on restoring civil aviation links between the two countries. I don't see any point in the contest over nitty-gritties. There is no readiness on either side to advance the talks.

And the question of political dialogue between the two countries has carefully been kept in the background. Instead of measures of limited impact, we seem to have run into a new road block. And out of the blue comes the new announcement. There is bound to be a cautious response from the Pakistan side. My own feeling is that the political process will remain very problematised. A broad-based dialogue is not on the cards.

Sinha said that the prime minister may go to the Saarc (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation summit in Islamabad in January, but there would be no India-Pakistan dialogue. From the Pakistan viewpoint, the latest Indian initiative is replete with palliative measures.

Is the US pressure on India to resume dialogue with Pakistan evident in the latest announcement?
There is a lot of speculation to that effect. It seems to me whether there is pressure or not, it does not seem that the two governments of India and Pakistan would like to appear to be unyielding. I don't think we live in a vacuum.

Do you think that the peace initiative with Pakistan is a personal mission with Prime Minister Vajpayee, and there is much opposition to it both within the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?
Vajpayee has shown several times during his tenure as prime minister, and even before when he was foreign minister of the country in the 1970s, that he would like to do something significant to bring the two countries together. The people on both sides share his sentiment and support him. It could well be that the BJP does not share to the same degree Vajpayee's commitment, but the prime minister can certainly pursue his goal. There are, however, political constraints, and there are very tricky questions.

Do you think that the Kashmir issue should be kept on the backburner?
I think it should be kept on a backburner. There is a good parallel in the India-China talks. There, the most difficult issues have been kept aside, while those that could be addressed are being handled. The same needs to be done on the India-Pakistan front as well. It is true that the parallel does not hold good all the way. India-Pakistan relations are vulnerable to the situation on the ground.

A terrorist attack, an act of violence affects the relations immediately. Talks with China do not have an impact on domestic politics in the same way.