How are our foreign policy initiatives?
The Home Minister has visited the USA. He sought US help for tracking the Pakistani terrorists, particularly, Hafiz Sayed, the chief of JuD, earlier known as LeT, who masterminded the Mumbai attacks. Can the US help India? In the Indo-Pakistani affairs?
No one seemed to have asked.
Kuldip Nayar, the veteran journalist and a Pakistan watcher of long standing has observed in a newspaper column that there is deep distrust between the two countries, and much of the mistrust ids engineered by the bureaucrats and top brass, and in the Pakistani case there are too many, both serving and retired military personnel in creating and sustaining the mistrust. So, it is not easy for the governments in both the countries to solve any issues of substance at the official levels, the security advisers and others would, a Nayar says” they would support their respective governments stand which they have mapped out in the first place”. So, things don’t move at all and at most of the times.
“There is no serious attempt, except at the peoples’ levels and that too in a limited way to change the frozen attitudes”.
Also says he that the hardened attitude of the Indian government might have something to do with the Maharashtra Assembly elections and this might have prompted the Congress to keep the dialogue process hanging to reap electoral advantage. One doesn’t know for sure.
Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah didn’t put the countries on fire, as it were, the book didn’t evoke much positive response, may be the Pakistani side got a bit softened and we can see the Iftar party of the Indian High Commissioner was graced by the ISI chief’s presence and there is some indication Pakistan, more than India is keen to break the deadlock.
We say that the Indo-Pakistan affairs are a bilateral problem and no third party can come in. Now, can we expect the USA to come in and solve our bilateral problem? What about the USA further giving us advice and even some push when it comes to other related problems, Kashmir and even in our military strategies, from the modified Harpoon missiles deployment and then next the nuclear proliferation and other issues etc?
Dr.Manmohan Singh government’s foreign policy issues also come for review.
So, how close we can proceed towards the USA and how much distance we have to maintain with the USA?
Says Kuldi Nayar in the same piece:”Some compromise formula has to be hammered out and let this not take place by brining America into the picture waiting in the wings all the time”.
Talks are the means not the end and it is always better to talk and talk and keep engaging and engaged!