Pak-India talks: A way forward?
Posted on 30. Jul, 2011 by S M Hali in Indo-Pakistan
"Historically Hindu India could never be trusted, they would adopt any means to achieve their ends. Very Sucessfully India milked Soviet Union till it's demise, now it's bleeding the USA. Pakistan must know that it's policy of appeasement would prove counter productive no matter what the government says. To extract anything from India, Pakistan will have to develop her policy independent of foreign influences." Raja Mujtaba
The smug faced and condescending S. M. Krishna must be smiling inwards that he got the better of his coy and suave counterpart. It has been India’s resolve to talk of developing and enhancing friendly relations through trade and tourism but let the core issue of Kashmir lie on the backburner.
By S. M. Hali
Prima facie, Pakistan’s youngest ever and first female Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, emanated exuberance, poise and confidence and proffered correct diplomatic nuances, but it is debatable whether her debut sojourn to India as the Foreign Minister can be dubbed a success. Directly upon her arrival, the suave and well coiffured Ms. Khar took New Delhi by storm. However, it appears that the media showering accolades on her couture and style was actually a ploy. Irrelevant focus on her Jane Birkin handbag, Chanel sunglasses, her pearls and her diamond studded watch and rings led her to digress from the main concentration.
The 34 year young Hina Rabbani Khar or “HRK” to the Indian Twitterati, who were fawning over her, comparing her to India’s top hero “SRK” (Shah Rukh Khan) and other glitterati, was actually no match to the mild mannered but extremely experienced seventy-nine years old Indian counterpart S M Krishna. Despite the fact that she commenced her tour with a meeting with Kashmiri leaders from Indian Occupied Kashmir, who are fighting for their freedom, she made a pointed effort to avoid even once mentioning the “K” word during her ten minute long speech at the joint press stakeout at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi on July 27, following her formal talks with her Indian opposite number.
No wonder that the Pakistan-baiting and RAW sponsored South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG) gleefully reports: “Her softly-worded positive speech was in direct contrast to her high-profile predecessor Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s shrill remarks at a joint press conference with Krishna in Islamabad a year ago that wrecked the event. Khar’s non-mention of Kashmir in her speech was no oversight but a well-planned strategy by Pakistan as even the three-page Indo-Pak Joint Statement did not mention ‘the core issue of Kashmir’, though the document did acknowledge that the two sides discussed Jammu and Kashmir, among other subjects.”
The smug faced and condescending S. M. Krishna must be smiling inwards that he got the better of his coy and suave counterpart. It has been India’s resolve to talk of developing and enhancing friendly relations through trade and tourism but let the core issue of Kashmir lie on the backburner. Some analysts may see it as a victory of sorts that Ms. Khar got to talk to the Kashmiri leaders before her formal meet with the Indian External Affairs Minister and that India is willing to talk about Kashmir among other issues. However, such myopic analysts must see the broader picture that India gave mild concessions, without committing itself on a single major Confidence Building Measure. Even Syed Ali Gilani, who was allowed to travel to New Delhi to meet Ms. Khar at the Pakistani High Commission, was immediately put under house arrest on his return, indicating that the ordeal of the reign of terror for the Kashmiris continues unabated.
The Indian media commented critically on its own government’s gesture of permitting Ms. Khar to meet the Kashmiri leaders; they said that how would Ms. Khar feel if an Indian leader had gone on a formal visit to Pakistan and asked to meet Baloch insurgents before the formal talks. Ms. Khar, amidst all the adulation showered upon her, failed to notice two major developments, which were reported in the Indian media. Firstly, the Indian air force chief issued a really provocative statement a day before talks with no reference to the context that ‘in case Pakistan launches a nuclear attack on India’, it would face severe retribution.
Secondly, the Indian Defence Ministry announced that it was opting for 189 state-of-the-art fighter aircraft at a cost of $20 billion among other high ticket defence purchases. Both these statements spell out the real intentions of India, which is willing to make cosmetic concessions but not disturb the status quo on Kashmir and other burning issues like water and terror. On a separate note, Ms. Khar could have avoided the vulgar display of her riches through her couture and style; after all she was representing an impoverished country, where a majority of the population goes to sleep hungry, whose economy is tottering under the burden of debts and which some pessimists liken to a failing state. She was visiting India as a foreign minister and not an icon of the glitterati or show biz. Pakistan, at this critical juncture needs pragmatic leaders to bring it out of the morass we are in and not paragons of beauty and models for the catwalk flaunting their riches in the face of havenots.
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8 Responses to “Pak-India talks: A way forward?”
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S M Hali
Sabrina Khatun
31. Jul, 2011
Hina Khar should have offered to sleep with the Indian leadership to extract concessions from them. Drunk in pleasure, the Indians would have parted with half of India just to get between her legs.
babur
31. Jul, 2011
Half of India just to get into Hina's legs with mutilated genitals? You must be kiding Sabrina, I never gave second chance to Benizer Bhutto on seeing brutal Islamic morass in her pant. Indians are too smart to that…Thanks. Babur
babur
31. Jul, 2011
To start with I have to admit that I believe in Allah but don't believe in Mohammad PBUH but that doesn't stop me to support what is laid in Quran.
It's said there can't be any dialogue between Musalman and a kafir? If true than why the above pakistani kafir converts should talk in articles of India Pakistani dialogue. Don't they trust Rasul. If they don't respect Qurab we kafir do.
Vellach Samie
31. Jul, 2011
Dear Mr S M Hali,
you must have been a good staff member of Pakistan Air Force.
But very bad at International Diplomacy.
You praise the Indians too much. You give India too much credit for being too smart. and insult the young Foreign Minister of Pakistan.
Indians may be getting what they want from Russia and now US. It is basically because the Indian people refruse to allow any leader to set the agenda. When a group tried to impose Hindu agenda they were quickly ousted.
Indian people want cheap food and electricity. They get it. Nuclear bombs are just bonus. Pakistan people are same as Indians. The punjabi people of Pakistan are in fact same as punjabi people of India. But Pakistan people have allowed its leaders to put forth matters like Kashmir as the most important element of your foreign policy. As you have also declared above.
If Hina Rabbani Khar's daring visit to India and meet with Kashmir people is not enough and her efforts to create opportunities for thousands of comman men in trade and tourism is not important, Then SIR, you are just a old man with nothing to offer to people of Pakistan.
I appreciate Hina Rabbani Khar's daring show of her riches rather then Benazir Butto's seeming simplicity but hidden wealth stolen over many years from people of Pakistan and stored in England.
Did you ever expect Hillary Clinton to change the dressing to freflect the growing poverty of Americans?
Give HRK a break. respect your leader who has shown courage and common sense and stop trumpeting causes which has no relevance or benefit to people of Pakistan.
Draconius Horribilis
31. Jul, 2011
This website is such a risible joke. all of Pakistan's many failings are through no fault of it's corrupt, backwards, illiterate rulers, or the terrorists that the government supports and provides cover for. All of Pakistan's problems are the fault of India, Israel, and the US not it's own idiotic government or insane Muslim fanatic terrorists. The articles on this site make me laugh. Perhaps if Pakistan abandoned the barbaric and insan Islamic cult though up by an insane pedophile camel fucker maybe the country wouldn't be in such a poor state just like the rest of the backwards Islamic nations are, still dwelling in the 7th century.
Alami Musafir
31. Jul, 2011
Same play, with the same outcome but with different actors. Kashmir was the 'Logic Bomb' inserted into the Independence movements of IndoPakistan by their erstwhile colonial masters. And it has gnawed away at the nations' hearts, weakening them, ever since. Pakistan should stop wasting time and effort with the abysmally myopic Indian establishment who fail to compare the cost versus gain of parting with Kashmir. Instead it should use whatever form of persuasion it can apply (eg transit of war supplies to Afghanistan) to FORCE the Americans to in turn force the Indians to see sense.
Believe me that once the thing happens, India will emerge stronger, safer and better off, able to fully concentrate on development and able to give the Chinese a run for their money. Its only their foolish sentimental attachment to Kashmir, so much akin to trying to hold onto a failed marriage, which is keeping them back.
Khalif
01. Aug, 2011
India will be stronger, …. blah blah
what planet are you living on?
India is was and will always be a coolie nation.
look at the Chinese – their growth on the otherhand indis has been independent state and is still a slave to the once master
educate yorselves on what is the meaning of the word hindu first
\What is the meaning of Hindu – BALDEV SINGH.mht
english speaking ignoranti with their western mythological "fabricated history to support the mythical glorious ancient Hindu civilization. The convoluted interpretation of the word “Hindu” by modern Hindus is nothing more than a “fabrication of history.”
Dennis Dey
31. Jul, 2011
Believe me, the Pakistan Army needs an excuse to arm itself and also needs someone to blame for all of pakistan's ills. It also needs an excuse to periodically grab power. What better excuse than that Indian "hegemony". Kashmir is just and excuse; even if India gifts the whole of Kashmir to Pakistan on a plate, a new front will immediately be opened elsewhere within India's borders. India has wisely maintained a low profile on Kashmir while Pakistan is obviously concentrating fully on it ignoring burning problems in Balochistan and Karachi. It has lost Bangladesh in 1971. India is just sitting quietly while Pakistan in en route to self-destruct on the Kashmir issue.