India and Pakistan, as Atal Behari Vajpayee remarked famously in 1998, can alter their history, but not their geography. That sentiment has been voiced by other Indian and Pakistani leaders since. It is born of the wisdom that enmity between two countries with a shared boundary can only take both along a mutually undermining path and there must be a commitment to finding peace and cooperation. Only sustained engagement over the long term can bring these. Such engagement is possible only when both sides stop treating every episode as a make-or-break event. When Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yusuf Raza Gilani agreed that their Foreign Ministers should meet to find ways to bridge the “trust deficit,” it was clear that the road ahead would be difficult. The talks between Foreign Ministers S.M. Krishna and Shah Mahmood Qureshi are seen in this perspective. That they could not arrive at common ground in their discussions is disappointing but this should not be blown out of proportion. After the positive tone of the preparatory discussions between the Foreign Secretaries in Islamabad last month, there was an expectation that the ministerial meeting would flag off action on certain “doables” aimed at rebuilding confidence and trust. The inability of the two sides to do so only underlines the extent of the mistrust that has set in since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. India wants Pakistan to go after the perpetrators and masterminds of the attacks; Pakistan says it has already done all that it can and India must get over Mumbai to begin talking about other issues. Nevertheless, the agreement by the Ministers to meet again in New Delhi is a definite plus and both governments must now ensure that it takes place.
Meanwhile, both India and Pakistan can be more restrained in their public statements. An official of the position and experience of the Home Secretary, G.K. Pillai, should have known better than to state in an interview, a day before the Foreign Minister talks, that the interrogation of David Headley had revealed the role of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in the Mumbai attacks “from the beginning till the end.” The relevant information must have been conveyed by Home Minister P. Chidambaram during his talks with his Pakistan counterpart Rehman Malik last month. Its public airing at a sensitive moment raises troubling questions about the motives for doing so, and about who really runs this government. This is not the first time Mr. Pillai has misspoken on sensitive issues. The Pakistan Foreign Minister too has been unnecessarily aggressive in his posturing towards India, perhaps out of domestic political compulsions. Far from being faulted, Mr. Krishna must be commended for the sobriety and statesmanship with which he handled a tricky situation. It is the responsibility of mature political leadership on both sides to take constructive engagement forward.
In the name of civilized society and freedom we are not taking any actions even against people who we know committed grave crimes. This will go on as long as we have leaders who are not capable of taking decisions. This is a waste of public money and time. But it is good for media to write articles and spend some time on this. But none will go into history.
Whoever has written the illogical editorial should have realized that the role of the ISI of Pakistan in conjunction with its hard core terrorists, is the key element disturbing the peace between Islamabad and New Delhi. The Pakistan Foreign Minister uttered the lie in stating that Mr. Krishna, lacking the mandate, had to repeatedly excuse himself, interrupting the talks. Mr. Qureshi's subsequent statements, and there are numerous, seek to mislead all and sundry that the Indian functionaries engaged in the dialogue process, are no better than a bunch of clowns. Sorry, The Hindu, for once your esteemed newspaper appears to have lost its objectivity. Indian Home Secretary was correct in asserting or even emphasizing on India's core concern.
I cant understand why the Indian govt is beating about the bush. Had Pakistan been against the terrorist camps in its soil, first it wouldn't have allowed it to grow there. Rather it's quite obvious that its the Pakistan govt that is financing them. India, on the other hand, should work to improve its internal security and tighten the border security.
The Pakistani leaders just wanted the dialouge to show that they are peace loving people but never show the intent to solve the matter since last 63 years.
To continue engagement will definitely inflate humanly sentiment of both the nations.Moreover this strategy must be treated as a weapon of counter insurgency to defeat terrorism and it will add to survival of democracy in both the counries.
It's high time that India and Pakistan stopped the blame game and showed some positive results. Politicians on both the sides have been and are exploiting every possible issue to gain merits. The "trust deficit" is nothing but just another political jargon.
In my opinion Indian Parliament should declare Mr Qureshi as persona non-grata.
That will effectively eliminate him from the bilateral dialogue.
Always we make positive efforts and be mature and patient enough to progress forward and ease the tension.
The attitude of the Pakistan foreign minister Mr. Qureshi reflected that he is interested only in showing dominance, rather to have an open mind to understand the situation in its right perspective. Talks may be necessary, but such type of leaders on the opposite side should be tackled assertively.
Indo-Pak problem cannot be solved honestly unless both countries muster enough strength to have a relook at the boundaries. When the famous SIMLA agreement could not make any positive impact onthe Indo-Pak relations any number of meetings agreeing to meet again would be another hectic day for the diplomats. Nothing more.
I am in complete agreement with the editorial. India & Pak must forget their differences and start talking issues in a objective manner. I really commend the statesmenship of Mr Krishna who inspite of provacation kept his cool in the press conference and went forward. The people of Pak & India are fed up with terrorism and want to see growth in their respective countries. Our cultures are almost similar and hence in people's interest the politicians should sit and resolve the problem. India as Asian giant should resolve this issue amicable and march ahead with progress and development.
Srinivasan.S
You said it right. We have to keep talking. It is speculated that the Pak army, which is the real power, scuttled the peace initiative. Looking at the history there are lots of good reasons to believe that. Americans and Chinese are the two entities have the muscle to discipline the pak army brats. Will they take the initiative to make the South Asia a region of peace?
I am in agreement with the thrust of the editorial. With Agra and Islamabad in mind, it is important, nay absolutely essential, that both sides should meticulously prepare for such meetings to the extent of orchestrating the minutest detail. A follow-up mechanism should ensure timely implementation of decisions in order to build a momentum. With so much in common between the two peoples logic and common sense dictate that they live and flourish in peace and security.
People of India and pakistan share same culture, food. The culture is no barrier but the unwillingness of pakistan administration to act against terrorist group is a big barrier. At the same time India should understand that pakistan can not act immediately because of the problems it faces with in the country and administrative failure in the regions where talibons dominant. Moreover the war waged by ISI through terrorist has caused problems in India has badly affected the relation.ISI is still sticking to its roots of insurgency against India. They are acting against taliban ,capturing terrorist for U.S they why? cant they act against people responsible for mumbai attack.Its the time to rethink and rework towards peace, unity for the prosperity of two nations .
Dear Sir,
All said and done,the talks between India and Pakistan are never-ending and destined to be futile as the Pakistan government is bent upon bringing the 'Kashmir issue' in one form or the other to scuttle the talks. So what is the need to continue the useless talks going nowhere?
I do not understand that singing the same song is not going to work. Something is always better than nothing. If the talks will go on in the same way, the tension will increase and will finally it can result a great gap between the two countries. Pakistan is itself suffering from the craziest disease ever seen "Terrorism" (even the condition is worse there). Mr. Krishna should make some positives out of these meetings. Shouting and crying on the previous issues will never work.
Will you believe what a man says or what he actually does?
Do you people who are supposed to be repositories of wisdom need to be taught this primary lesson in human relations?
I live in a multi storey apartment building. I and my upper floor neighbour were not on talking terms for 10 years for no fault of mine.
But we lived along and our neighbourhood was non the worse for it. So heavens are not going to fall if don't show our shameless eagerness to be insulted by Pakistan again and again.
What is new in the knowledge that the 26/11 terror attack was financed and co-ordinated by ISI ?
Indian government need to be less aggressive on Mumbai issue and try to build good relations with Pakistan for a better future otherwise Pakistan will always look for china to use it as a threat against India.
Foreign Ministers S.M. Krishna and Shah Mahmood Qureshi are back to square one, made messier by the press confrences that followed their "trust building" exercise. Mr.Krishna is reported to have stood firm on India's stand that the men behind the Mumbai attack have to be brought to book and Pakistan should destroy anti-India terrorist infrastructure in that country before any other outstanding issues of concern to the two countries are discussed, given always that Pakistan can never have any claim on Kashmir. But for Pakistan Kashmir remains the main issue. Naturally there was nothing for the Foreign to agree on except on meeting again for a similar dialogue. Other than giving the media in both countries good stories to entertain their viewrs and readers, such a meaningless interaction between the two neighbours can achieve nothing.
To believe in bilateral dialogue is without a doubt may be last solution but how long we believe on this theme. We are trying over sixty years. There is hope but not solution. because pakistan driven by militant groups. Now What we need that is introspection. Why we should not tighten our border security?why we should not be able to stop infilteresion from our territory. By tighten our border can we not stop infiltercsion, if not than why we spend our money on arm forces . Why our intelligence agency failed to work properly? Why militant are able to attack our arm forces? Are we so poor to defend ourself?
In my point of view first we need to restruct & modernise our arm forces. And most importantly acknowledge indian population to play effective & important role to support our police, arm forces,& intelligence agency to make india prosperous and its people tantion free from outsiders. Thank u sorry if any wrong bcz i am arm force personal.
The assesment is fine,it is time to look beyeand verbal wars.Let the message of much wanted peace by both the countries be respected by the persons holding high offices
The assesment is fine,it is time to look beyond verbal wars. Let the message of much wanted peace by both the countries be respected by the persons holding high offices
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