Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
Yet another attempt to restore a touch of normality to Indo-Pak relations was made by the Prime Ministers of the two countries in the Indian capital, day after Nawaz Sharif flew into New Delhi to attend Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Not much frankly, was expected to come out of the meeting between the two leaders particularly when it became known that the visiting the SAARC leaders and the Mauritius Prime Minister would get no more than 30 minutes each to talk with their Indian host. A curious way of seeking to influence guests whom Modi was meeting for the first time.
The meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Modi did in fact last a full 50 minutes, forcing the next VIP caller, the Speaker of Bangladesh, representing Sheikh Hassina, her Prime Minister, to await her turn, a full 20 minutes late. A Modi acolyte was quick to point out that Modiji doesn’t sleep nor does he have his lunch. Good for Mr. Modi, the former RSS pracharak, to whom such self-discipline comes effortlessly. How about the callers, the visiting VIPs?
The pitch for the Indo-Pak dialogue had been queered much earlier, by the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, by loudly proclaiming that the attack on the Indian Consulate in Heart in Afghanistan was mounted by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. This apparently brought the terror issue, more precisely Pakistan’s mollycoddling of these to the forefront. Pakistan has been unable or unwilling to rein in the Lashkar, known to be the recipient of significant amount of money from the PML-N of Nawaz Sharif and from his brother Shahbaz, the Chief Minister of Pakistan’s most populous and prosperous province, Punjab.
So it can be safely be assumed that Prime Minister Modi would have instantly gone for the jugular by insisting that Pakistan come clean on the terror issue. The Indian grouse list was long and tedious, not really conducive to give us Bollywoodian bonhomie, a meeting of two long lost brothers etc. I was not present at the meeting but having witnessed such dialogues for over four decades, this must have been followed by a gentle tu-tu mein-mein with India wanting answers for the Mumbai attack, Isalamabad’s failure to stop Lashkar and the old favourite Dawwod Ibrahim.
According to Pakistani sources a reference to the Kashmir dispute, mandatory for any Indo-Pak discussion at such meeting was indeed made though the Indian Foreign Secretary, Sujatha Singh did not mention this in her extremely cryptic answers to questions. The Indians for some reason seemed not overly keen to put a favourable gloss on the tone and tenor of the talks.
Indeed, not unusual though, for Indo-Pak talks – the two sides played out a tiring waiting game to brief the media.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif it was said would make a Press statement at 3 p.m. or so, after his courtesy call on the ailing Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Indians too had announced on a briefing around the same time. The old familiar war of wits between the Foreign Office actors on both sides had clearly ensured that the waiting gain would be played to the hilt. The Pakistanis were obviously keen to know the Indian view of the talks and the hosts Indians were equally keen that Nawaz Sharif must have his say before their own briefing became known. Just to make sure that they are not taken unawares.
It was wasn’t funny to see the Indian Foreign Office spokesman laying ground rules for the briefing in a manner that put Pakistan at the seventh place, which in effect made the Indian summing up of the Modi-Nawaz talks the last but one, almost an hour into the briefing to be talked about. Nawaz Sharif in turn apologized for the delay in his making the statement; it was finally done around 5 p.m. with the Pak Prime Minister leaving immediately after that for the airport.
Reminded me of the story of Mr. Buotrous Ghali, then Egyptian Foreign Minister and later UN Secretary General. Buotrous said he was scared of having Indian and Pakistanis together in any discussion. More so when it came to drafting notes or resolutions etc. The sub-continental bureaucrats, past masters in stalling, would waste hours before agreeing on the insertion of a comma in a text. They argued endlessly, he despaired. The waiting game or tiring the other side out is another game Indian and Pakistani officials love to play.
And look at the Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh’s insistence on the words “remain in touch” when referring to the Modi’s and Sharif’s suggestion that the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries be directed to do the follow-up through regular contacts or formal meetings. Mrs. Singh wouldn’t budge saying that the two leaders have asked the foreign secretaries to stay in touch. One thing is clear though that the bilateral may indeed help to give an extra push to trade ties between them.
My gut feeling is that should Narendra Modi opt to give a new and positive direction to the Indo-Pak discourse he may find Nawaz Sharif more than willing to help build bridges, notwithstanding his own domestic problems, his equation with Army and the ISI, his willingness to take on the very serious challenge posed to the country by the Tehreek-e-Taliban, Pakistan and other4 major terror outfits including Hafiz Saeed’s Lashgkar-e-Taiba.
These indeed are not easy times for the Pakistan Prime Minister. His Army is hell-bent on seeing their strategic interests in Afghanistan secured at all costs. Karzai has openly accused Islamabad of masterminding terrorist depredations in Afghanistan. Yet Karzai seems more than confident that his neighbour to the east may not at all have its way in his war ravaged country.
Day one, after the swearing-in ceremony of the Modi Cabinet, it hit me like a bullet : the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office, one Mr. Jitinder Singh had chosen to shoot his mouth, in a manner which at the very least, should earn him a reprimand from Modi. That’s assuming Singh has spoken out of turn. Who’s Jitnder Singh? I asked myself. Got the answer from a former colleague. He himself wanted to know something more about him.
But he volunteered that Singh had won the Lok Sabha seat from Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir. I confessed ignorance : “I thought he was from Rajasthan or Haryana,” I startled my friend. But Mr. Singh, it must be admitted, has startled millions with his statement that Article 370 of the Indian Constitution according special status to Jammu and Kashmir, is to be knocked out of the Constitution and that the process has already been initiated.
I am sure the first-time MP will be told to give rein to his tongue and to realize that amending the Constitution does not fall in his jurisdiction. The statement has evidently attracted bitter criticism from the Kashmir Chief Minister Umar Abdullah and the Peoples Democratic Party leader, Mehbooba Mufti. Jitinder Singh, carried away by his proximity to the PMO, has chosen to do some grandstanding with an eye cast on his constituency where he may probably find some buyers for his old BJP red herring.
Article 370 is integral to the State’s accession to the Indian Union. Yes, the Jana Sangh and its successor, the BJP have opposed retention of the Article for decades. Mr. Jitender Singh would perhaps not know the many dimensions of the Kashmir issue, internal and external, and BJP would be well advised to restrain the wild rookie MP turned Minister. Even Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the height of his power did not seek dropping of the Article. A pragmatist, he preferred to give a Nelson’s eye to the agitation by the then Jan Sangh led by Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Prem Nath Dogra, the Jammu leader, their battle cry : ek vidhan, ek nishan, ek pradhan. The movement never grew out of Jammu city.
And now that Mr. Jitender Singh has chosen to revive the ghost of the agitation by focusing on Article 370 it is no wonder that the mainstream parties in the State, the Peoples Democratic Party and the National Conference have jumped into the fray. It is a very emotive issue for them, particularly the valley. Winning three Lok Sabha seats from the State does not make the BJP the spokesman of the entire State, the Chief Minister Umar Abdullah and the PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti have argued, asking New Delhi not to tinker with the State’s relationship with the Union. The Article is an assurance given by the Constitution about the uniqueness of the State. The RSS, though, does not seem very impressed. The Sangh spokesman Ram Madhav bitterly asks if the State is a family estate of the Abdullahs. The senior Sangh leader M. G. Vaidya joined battle soon after to question the “special status” of Jammu and Kashmir. “Why should the State assembly have a six-year term when all other States have five-year terms?”
So, another chapter in the history of Jammu and Kashmir may be about to unfold. We haven’t yet heard from the separatists who in any case do not accept the State’s relationship with the Union. Mr. Jitender Singh may well claim the honour to have authored a new phase in the tortuous political history of Kashmir. Or, is it the beginning of another attempt by Jammu to forge a new relationship with neighbouring Himachal or parts of it at least.
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