Tensions extend far beyond the political and military into everyday life, writes Rahul Bediin New Delhi
THE UPCOMING talks between India and Pakistan in New Delhi are the first since the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. But while they signify an easing of tensions between the neighbours, the underlying issues remain unresolved.
India, which blames the Mumbai attack on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT or Army of the Pure) radical group and has been demanding action against its leadership and cadres, wants the February 25th talks between the foreign secretaries to focus entirely on terrorism. Pakistan is demanding a more wide-ranging exchange.
“We want a meaningful engagement,” Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said recently, adding that Pakistan was seeking “a result-oriented dialogue”.
The minister wants a resumption of the “composite dialogue” that was called off after the Mumbai siege. This focused on eight issues, including the disputed Jammu and Kashmir province (divided between the two but claimed by both); cross-border terrorism; narcotics smuggling; and nuclear and conventional military confidence-building measures.
Unresolved frontiers in the marshy Sir Creek region alongside the Arabian Sea and the debilitating military face-off along the northern Siachen glacier were also part of the dialogue. The remaining issues were bilateral easing of visa restrictions and people-to-people contact, trade and commerce; and maritime boundaries.
The fourth and last round of talks under the composite dialogue rubric, which began in 2004, concluded in May 2008. But little had been achieved in the talks before they were abandoned after the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people died.
In the four years of talks, however, a modicum of peace prevailed between the neighbours, who since independence 63 years ago have fought three wars and an 11-week military engagement along the mountainous Kashmir border in May 1999.
India accuses Pakistan of being behind the 21-year insurgency in Kashmir that is seeking an independent Muslim homeland. Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it only provides moral and political support for the armed struggle, which has claimed more than 70,000 lives.
“The forthcoming talks will, for now, remain talks about talks,” said former Indian Lieut Gen Vijay Kapoor.
They cannot be anything more than that at this stage given the differing perceptions and inherent mistrust between the two poverty-ridden countries. But for both states talking is better than war, said the former tank commander, who fought in the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan.
The US has been pressurising Delhi and Islamabad to resume dialogue, hoping that reduced tensions between them will assist its broader strategy against Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s restive tribal belt.
Washington believes that if tensions between Pakistan and India ease, Islamabad could shift some badly needed troops away from its eastern border with India to counter al-Qaeda and its Taliban associates on the western Afghan border.
However, most analysts on both sides agree that achieving peace is an arduous and complex matter as the fierce rivalry and “trust deficit” extends beyond conflict, military stand-offs and bitter wrangling into the daily life of people on either side of the volatile border. It stretches beyond attempts to outdo each other in diplomacy, acquiring better missiles, tanks and fighter aircraft, and conducting nuclear tests.
The people of Pakistan and India claim to grow sweeter mangoes, melons and grapes, to produce better music and television programmes, and to dress, eat and entertain better than those across the border. Both even consider themselves better-looking and more charming.
The suspicion and disdain the military and political establishments have for one another is shared by their citizens, who were part of the same country until they were given independence but partitioned in 1947.
The subcontinent was divided by the colonial administration between India and West and East Pakistan. In 1971, East Pakistan broke away to become Bangladesh.
Activists from both sides working to bridge differences through peace initiatives such as cultural exchanges, joint media ventures and writers’ conventions are of the view that Indians and Pakistanis share a common heritage, which they go to great lengths to deny for political and religious reasons.
“Tensions arise not from being different, but the same,” said Kuldip Singh (71), who was born in the Pakistani border city of Lahore and now lives in Delhi.