India-Pak ties need delicate handling

Terrorists from Pakistan attacked our Air Force station in Pathankot on Saturday, just eight days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a surprise visit to Lahore on December 25 to wish Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif on the latter’s birthday in an effort to free India-Pakistan relations from the logjam of a hostile inertia after India had cancelled the NSA dialogue last September. Yet, Mr Modi has no choice but to carry on the track he has chosen. A supportive statement of the Pakistan foreign office — condemning the Pathankot attack and committing itself to the peace process in light of the recent “high-level” contacts between the two countries — is likely to help the Indian side attempt to stay the course. Of course, this cannot go on endlessly. Another attack, and the Modi government will be obliged to reconsider.

It is true, as the Opposition Congress says, that this government does not have a Pakistan policy worth the name. But still there is no harm in seeking to restore a sense of sanity if possible, even if it’s only for a time. The Pakistan people and its political class should have the confidence that the Indians are ready to try, and that for them the hindrance is terrorism, and that if this issue is sought to be seriously addressed by Pakistan, peace has a real chance. They should know that their officials and generals are talking defensive rubbish when they cite the Samjhauta Express blast in a retaliation to Indian arguments on Pakistan doing little to punish those who carried out the Mumbai attacks in 2008.  

The Modi government and the BJP leadership will no doubt be aware that if the slim progress recorded after the PM’s Lahore “stopover” suffers a setback in the wake of terrorist incidents, it will primarily be on account of the sentiments of the BJP rank and file and the BJP’s core constituency of the Hindu urban middle classes, not the Congress. The commandos of the IAF, the NSG, and the Punjab police, put up a terrific show in thwarting the advance of the terrorists. They were aided by first class operational intelligence made available earlier so that they could mount their defences in time. If the parked fighter aircraft and attack helicopters had been hit by terrorists, it would be near impossible for any government to carry on talking peace with Pakistan. This highlights how delicate and fraught India-Pakistan relations are. In the absence of factual information, we should assume that the Pakistan military is hostile to peace moves. This makes peace-making harder.