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How Modi can score over Pakistan

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Rajeev Sharma
Rajeev SharmaDec 08, 2015 | 11:21

How Modi can score over Pakistan

Pakistan has indeed scored brownie points over the Modi government in its latest bilateral engagement. Now the Kashmir issue is back on the table, a course correction by the Modi government over the Ufa process wherein the Kashmir issue was significantly omitted.

Yes, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will be in Pakistan later this evening - the Modi government's first ministerial visit to Pakistan.

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But the visit comes after fulfilling demands that Pakistan has been making all this while: that the National Security Advisors of the two countries meet first.

That has happened. Besides, the two NSAs were accompanied by foreign secretaries of the two sides as well.

In August last year the foreign secretaries of the two countries were supposed to meet but the meeting was called off unilaterally by the Modi government over the Hurriyat issue. The argument given by the Modi government for unilaterally cancelling the foreign secretary-level talks then was: Either you talk to them (the Kashmiri separatists) or us.

Now that the two countries' NSAs have met and the Indian foreign minister will be in Pakistan on her maiden trip in her official capacity later today, the question is: whether all those pre-conditions of the Modi government have been met or not.

The answer, unfortunately, is in the negative.

From the Indian perspective there is no assurance from Pakistan, oral or written, that Islamabad won't be engaging with the Kashmiri separatists - the main ground of the Modi government for the foreign secretary-level talks in August 2014.

But after the NSAs of India and Pakistan met in Bangkok on Sunday, this plank of the Modi government has gone for a toss as the two sides' foreign secretaries were also present at the Bangkok meeting.

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This means Pakistan got what it had been demanding throughout. Islamabad got both: meetings at the level of foreign secretaries as well as the NSAs at the Bangkok meeting.

But stating that would be portraying only half the picture. From the Modi government's perspective, it has stooped to conquer. It has actually corrected its earlier mistake in Ufa where it had yielded zilch to the Pakistani side by lack of mention of the Kashmir issue.

At Ufa, the Modi government had taken a maximalist position appropriating everything diplomatically and leaving nothing for the other side. This kind of maximalist position is a big no-no in international diplomacy as the Modi government was soon to realise when the Pakistani side dumped the Ufa spirit soon after.

What the Modi government has done in effect in Bangkok is burying the Ufa process and taking a new leaf in bilateral relations. This is an important course correction and the Modi government needs to be given full marks for realising its mistake and putting in place the corrective measures.

This is the crux of the Bangkok process. It is in fitness of things that the two sides take up everything on the table and then move forward.

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Last updated: December 08, 2015 | 11:21
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