India and Pakistan must de-escalate tension

The two nations have no option but to leave aside the vitriol and employ sound political sensibilities

The deaths of 18 Indian soldiers in the town of Uri in the Indian Kashmir, after a terror attack, has ratcheted up the already high tension between India and Pakistan to stratospheric heights. The incident, one more in a series of militant attacks on Indian soil in recent times, now threatens to do irreparable damage to bilateral ties.

Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, in his speech at the general debate of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, three days after the Uri attack, seemed to reiterate the seemingly intractable position of India. And the upcoming speech by India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the UN will, in all likelihood, refer to Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir as untenable. The rising tide of voices on either side and the finger-pointing are not out of place, given the long-running bitter narrative between the two countries, but the truth is, both India and Pakistan have no option but to eschew the vitriol and employ sound political sensibilities to address the fundamental issues. This, combined with a sincere intent to de-escalate the tension, is the only way to restart constructive dialogue. This dialogue, and not the fever-pitch rhetoric of military escalation, is what will redefine their future and the welfare of the Indian sub-continent.

If there is more than 60 years of rancour defining the politics, then there is also an appreciable repository of sociocultural affinity and India and Pakistan must realise that at no point in the history of the two nations comes a road that does not point the way back towards recovery and rebuilding ties. It’s a path not unfamiliar to both.