Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
Poor Mr Ali Shah Geelani, the octogenarian pro-Pakistan Kashmiri separatist leader,feeling let down by Islamabad. to his horror the joint statement issued at the end of the Modi-Nawaz Sharif meeting in Ufa in the Russian federation failed to mention the mandatory ‘K’ word. An unpardonable error of judgment by the Pakistanis,an insult, in Geelani’s view, of the cause dear to him, his Hurriyat and to the Pakistani people : Kashmir as a part of Pakistan.
The old man fretted and fumed,one is told, when the grave omission was brought to his notice. His anger,luckily for him, coincided with an invitation to him and other separatist leaders by High Commissioner Basit of Pakistan to break bread with him at the Eid Milan dinner to be hosted by him in New Delhi . Just the kind of opening he needed.
Lo and Behold the separatist leader promptly rejected the invite,urging other separatist leaders in the Valley to follow suit. Pakistan ,he asserted, had insulted the separatist struggle by failing to record the existence of the Kashmir dispute in the joint statement.This,when the dispute has been repeatedly acknowledged by the two principal parties among the outstanding issues to be sorted out by the two countries.
I remember the long hours Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto spent at Shimla some four decades ago to get Kashmir specifically mentioned as one of the issues which would be addressed bilaterally subsequently. This, at a time when his first priority obviously was to get Indira Gandhi to accept the return to him of over 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war, lying in Indian pow camps.
Mr Geelani was obviously playing to the gallery by saying ‘no’ to the Pakistani Diplomat’s invitation, a hardy annual in the separatist calendar and one which they attend with great gusto. Personal experience, extended over a 40-year period tells me – and to Pakistan’s credit– that rarely ,if ever, has the Pakistani side failed to somehow bring Kashmir into the discourse even when they probably would be discussing a highly improbable joint Indo-Pak trip to the moon. Exaggeration, yes.
But such is their obsession. The Pakistani leadership doesn’t have to take lessons in patriotism from the Kashmiri separatists and sure enough. It is not as if the K word never figured in the Ufa talks between Nawaz Sharif and Modi. In retrospect could it be that someone from across the border caused Geelani to rock the boat as it were. As it is many Pakistanis, hardliners in particular, were apprehensive over the absence of the K word in the joint statement read out by the Indian an Pakistani Foreign Secretaries together, the first half of it by the indian official and the remaining half by the Pak official.
There is no denying the fact pressure was brought to bear on Narendra Modi by countries like Russia and China give a positive direction to the oft-suspended Indo-Pak dialogue.Their suggestion obviously had a broader context of confusion in both india and Pakistan about moving forward in their quest for a stabler relationship. And it is in this context one needs to note that if the Ufa statement failed to mention the K word Sartaj Aziz, Sharif’s Advisor on National Security Affairs, and long-time Foreign Minister had to make it amply clear on Tuesday that for Pakistan there can be no talks without Kashmir.
This reassertion of the Pak position was obviously directed at domestic audience. The official view here is that the joint statement was a considered honest, accurate and reasonable summary of the talks. For the Indian side what Islamabad told them formally at Ufa was most important and not what they later said to the domestic audience. The joint statement it is claimed represented a faithful summary of what was actually said and agreed upon at the meeting and it was prepared at great speed and signed by both sides. The speed part beats me though. For Indian and Pakistani diplomats are internationally notorious for their ability to fight for hours over the placement of even commas and semi-colons.
The talks could indeed be a precurssor of higher levels of contact. The meetings between the National Security Advisors of the two countries, A.K.Duval, the former Intelligence Bureau Chief and now the NSA and his Pak counterpart Sartaj Aziz could well give a new direction to the bilateral dialogue should they – both hardliners – choose to find viable and mutually acceptable solutions to probems that have bedevilled the bilateral relations. The proposed meetings between the DGMOS of the two countries has the potential to bring down the level of tension across the border.
One hopes New Delhi continues to regard Mr. Aziz’s fulminations on Tuesday as no more than an effort to cool down domestic tempers which it indeed seemed to be.
Simultaneously it is to be hoped that the Modi Government can formulate some kind of a firm Pakistan Policy to arm itself to actually make a forward move on some of the contentious issues. Mr Modi and his people from the Sangh Parivar would undoubtedly need to do much more than merely wishing for miracles to happen; it shouldn’t hesitate to borrow a few leaves from Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s book on building up relations with our immediate neighborhood. He nearly pulled off a miracle both in respect of our relations with Pakistan and an overall reconciliation in Jammu and Kashmir.
For that to happen Mr. Modi must learn to rid himself of the deep prejudices he may have acquired during his long years as a RSS kariya karta and pracharak. It’s one thing to talk in distant Central Asian Muslim-dominated urban centres of the great cultural crucible that is India and quite another to acept the reality of ‘ Sarva Dharma Sambhav” or the other one “Vasudeva Kuttambakkam”. Both, very idealistic and very appealing too.Yet, very hard to practice. Just think of the Prime Minister choosing not to attend a reception the President of India is hosting. Why, and I hope I am wrong.Because, the reception has officially been described as an Iftaar party.
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