Time for a new beginning in India-Pakistan relations

It is encouraging to note that the content in the exchange of greetings between Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the former assuming office, gives all indications of an intention on the part of both countries to place their bilateral relations on a new, positive footing. The hope of those who wish the South Asian region well is likely to be that there would be a satisfactory follow-up on these initial sentiments.

For example, Sharif said in his reply to Modi’s greeting that, ‘Pakistan desires peaceful and cooperative ties with India. Peaceful settlement of outstanding disputes including Jammu & Kashmir is indispensable. Pakistan’s sacrifices in fighting terrorism are well-known. Let’s secure peace and focus on the socio-economic development of our people.’ Earlier, Modi told his Pakistani counterpart: ‘India desires peace and stability in a region free of terror, so that we can focus on our development challenges and ensure the wellbeing and prosperity of our people.’

Over the past decades, the issue of ‘cross-border terrorism’ in particular has been getting in the way of India and Pakistan improving their bilateral relations. Accusations and counter-accusations on this question have hitherto clouded the prospects of the countries putting their ties on a stable, mutually-beneficial foundation.

For instance, it goes without saying that socio-economic development is a pressing need for both states, but the inability of the countries to sort out the issue of ‘cross-border terrorism’ to their mutual satisfaction has time and again stymied the countries’ forward movement in ending their misapprehensions on security-related questions.

The latter inability has stood in the way of the countries exploiting to the fullest the potential for bilateral and regional socio-economic development. One main proof we have of this is the near dysfunctional state of SAARC. Needless to say, if SAARC could be fully reactivated and rendered vibrantly functional, not merely India and Pakistan, but the entirety of the SAARC region could be made to benefit in a number of ways that have a direct bearing on development.

Terror-linked issues that grow out of identity politics have proved notoriously difficult to resolve in the South Asian region in particular. Unfortunately, most governments of this region have this fatal tendency to exploit questions in identity politics to further their power ambitions. This has a deleterious impact on inter-state relations, and India-Pakistan ties are a case in point.

At this juncture, when India and Pakistan are hoping to have a new beginning in their bilateral ties, it is best that they consider as to how their future relations could be insulated from the deleterious impact of identity politics. Put simply, the respective governments need to look at ways of preventing ethnic and religious chauvinism in their countries from negatively impacting their bilateral relations, particularly in the area of socio-economic development.

Thus far, such insulation has proved difficult to achieve since the region’s identity groups are widely dispersed. Consequently, the identity politics of one country tend to flow into and affect the other. For example, Tamil Nadu cannot be prevented from being concerned over issues that affect Sri Lanka’s Tamil community. Likewise, identity politics are at the heart of the Jammu & Kashmir tangle. The very considerable Muslim presence in J&K has rendered the latter state a bone of contention between India and Pakistan. It will continue to be so as long as identity politics are permitted to be a major factor in Pakistan’s politics.

It is a question of priorities. If the pressing need is domestic and regional development, all other considerations that come in the way of this aim should be seen as unimportant and dispensable. If this could be achieved to even a degree, domestic and regional development could be forged ahead with. SAARC’s decades-long endeavours to achieve a measure of development bear this out.

India and Pakistan, being the region’s key economic powers, need to see themselves as especially responsible for prioritizing these aims and working towards them. Specifically, the countries need to seek ways to contain the influence of Realpolitik in their bilateral ties.

At the time SAARC was founded, the endeavour of the countries concerned was to keep controversial bilateral political issues completely out of the SAARC deliberative process. Progressive opinion in the region was of the view, and very rightly, that SAARC’s economic cooperation process would result in the material empowerment of the countries concerned and that this in turn would contain mass socio-economic disaffection, resulting in a decrease in tensions among identity groups. Decades later, this reasoning continues to hold.

However, these founding ideals could be realized in full only if India and Pakistan get their act together and give regional cooperation a fresh try, since their heft is decisive in the SAARC process. Hopefully, all this would now come to pass.

India-Pakistan ties were not at their best during the tenure of the Imran Khan administration. The latter tended to mobilize support for itself on the basis of religious identity and this rendered a normalization of relations between India and Pakistan difficult. It is important for the countries of the region to realize that their security cannot be secured by playing-up religious, ethnic and other such identity differences in inter-state ties. Such policy postures tend to intensify regional tensions rather than defuse any.

A big plus for SAARC is the continuing democratic identity of Pakistan. Accordingly, Pakistan enjoys considerable commonalities with the rest of the democracies of the region with regard to core political values. The latter could constitute a solid basis on which the rest of the democracies of South Asia could interact with Pakistan.

However, Pakistan was founded on the basis of a religious identity and the latter factor continues to wield a considerable influence on its domestic and foreign policies. While this could be seen in some quarters as having a divisive impact on inter-state relations, the rest of South Asia has no choice but to be flexible in its ties with Pakistan. May be, Pakistan’s new administration could give some thought as to how it could accelerate the country’s democratic development.