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The flavour of the season is peace – peace with Pakistan. The ice has been broken and the two countries have taken the first steps towards normalization of relations. Sourav Ganguly and his team is playing cricket in Pakistan and Indians are visiting that country in great numbers. Everything seems to be going great.
But before we jump to conclusions that the India-Pakistan peace initiative is on the right track, some issues have to be considered. The words of the joint statement and the long closed-door meetings preceding it, is proof enough of the difficulties that lie ahead. At best, the initiatives can be described as a thaw and not as a breakthrough on the Kashmir problem. The statement, which came after the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit in Islamabad, mentioned that dialogue on all bilateral issues could start. The groundwork that had been done included major confidence-building measures by both sides, the most important being the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Kashmir. That ceasefire, offered unilaterally by Pakistan and agreed to by India created the right atmosphere for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to attend the SAARC Summit. Perhaps, what turned the tide towards peace was Pakistan graciously bowing to India’s insistence to stop supporting terrorism in Kashmir. The joint declaration emphasises this point stating that President Pervez Musharraf reassured Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that he would “not allow any territory under Pakistan’s control to be used to support terrorism in any manner”. Whatever international pressures there might have been on the two countries to call a truce, it must be remembered that the assurance given by President Pervez Musharraf was not the first one of its kind.
India, on its part, has kept the contentious Kashmir issue out and the joint statement talks of “resolving bilateral issues”, which obviously includes the main problem of Kashmir. There can be no doubt about the intentions of the two sides to usher in peace through a mutual settlement of all the thorny issues and the confidence-building measures – cricket included – will indeed go a long way to re-laying the road to peace between the neighbours. The earlier attempts to shake hands had failed primarily on two counts: high expectations from both the sides and the machinations of hawks in the two countries. This time around, both are cautious in their approach. Sidelining caution, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s desire for peace in his own lifetime, however, prompted him to say that though it would take a long time to resolve all the standing disputes, the contacts between the two countries must go on. Pakistan too, followed by proposing talks on nuclear confidence-building measures on May 25-26, 2004. The move will certainly gone a long way to calm the international community. The first steps have brought the two countries closer than anyone would have imagined a few months ago. The time has come to take that giant leap, which would put the people of India and Pakistan at par with those in Germany, who had the courage to break the wall that separated the two nations and the two peoples of the same stock.
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