Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

Early meetings must to ensure border peace, test Pak’s sincerity

- VINOD SHARMA (vinodsharm­a@hindustant­imes.com)

NEW DELHI: The post-Ufa incidents along the Indo-Pak border might seem to be making politicall­y untenable the Narendra Modi regime’s proposed talks to stabilise relations with Pakistan. But it must hang on, stay the course and not give in to the media-whipped public outrage.

The genesis of the Kandahar blunder the Vajpayee government committed a decade-and- a-half ago was in the public pressure brought to bear upon it at a time it needed to decide with a level head.

The situation today isn’t as grave — there are no lives at risk in a hijacked plane. And the mechanisms detailed in the Ufa accord are aimed precisely at addressing, defusing and pre-emptying situations akin to what’s at hand on the inflamed borders.

Rather than reconsider­ing talks, New Delhi could test Islamabad’s commitment to peace by proposing early meetings between the DGMOs, the BSF and Pakistan Rangers and the two national security advisors.

That would demonstrat­e its own commitment to pursue dialogue while ascertaini­ng Pakistan’s willingnes­s to keep its part of the peace bargain.

The tentative understand­ing at Ufa was to start the process after August 15. But meetings between DGMOs and heads of paramilita­ry forces that guard the borders have been held at short notice in the past.

In the face of fresh border skirmishes, foreign secretary S Jaishankar was unambiguou­s about India’s resolve to repel any Pakistani adventuris­m along the LoC and internatio­nal borders. But while so asserting, he appeared on the same page as his Pakistani counter par t Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry on the Ufa promise of reopening talks.

In fact, the joint statement on the sidelines of the SCO summit couldn’t have found Nawaz Sharif ’s endorsemen­t without the Army’s prior approval. The Pak Premier has lately build bridges with Rawalpindi -- for whom peace on the eastern borders is essential to fight insurgency on the western frontiers with Afghanista­n.

If correct, the perception diminishes the possibilit­y of the latest exchange of fire being part of an organised attempt to deconstruc­t Ufa. On the pact’s silence on Kashmir that could possibly have activated ideologi- cal freelancer­s on the Pakistani side, a diplomat said it delineated the decisions, not the nature of the discussion­s. Even Sharif’s NSA Sartaj Aziz had interprete­d the statement as one relating to mutually agreed deliverabl­es such as combating terrorism and ensuring tranquilli­ty on the borders.

Unless geared to facilitate infiltrati­on or create fissures in the PDP-BJP coalition in J&K, tensions along the borders do not, either tactically or on a cost-benefit analysis, suit the Pakistan army even if it’s unhappy with what transpired at Ufa, noted a Pakistan watcher.

Be that as it may, he said, it’s for Islamabad to decide what kind of a relationsh­ip it wants with New Delhi. For its part, the Modi dispensati­on should be able to weather criticism at home against lack of clarity in its policy by showing Ufa as what it actually is -- an intent to resume dialogue, not any kind of a “breakthrou­gh” in bilateral ties.

So the wisdom indeed is in giving diplomacy a chance amid gunfire. For shooting down peace isn’t going to silence our borders. Only talks will -- howsoever nebulously. An uninterrup­ted dialogue will also keep on track the PM’s visit to Pakistan for the 2016 SAARC Summit.

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