Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Talks can’t solve Indo-Pak problem' that was published in Newsband

Talks can’t solve Indo-Pak problem
India and Pakistan failed to hold the planned meeting between their National Security Advisers, as was agreed in Ufa six weeks ago. At Ufa there was an agreement that the NSAs would “discuss all issues connected to terrorism”. There is urgent need of peace and tranquility along the border and the Line of Control (LoC), which has been witnessing rounds of wanton firing and unacceptable casualties. How will the two nuclear-capable neighbours deal with each other?
The violation of ceasefire along LOC by Pakistani Army is an act of nonsense and immaturity both by the Pakistani Government and the Army. But India must behave and act maturely as the issue is highly sensitive and a world level talk on International platform is urgently needed. This could be achieved by putting economic sanction and international pressure by the US, China and EU for the sake of restoring global peace.
There are alternatives other than talks. Why not mass troops at the border as a defensive measure to Pakistani provocations? It appears that for the Pakistanis, the Partition is an unfinished story. They wanted a separate nation and got it. Now they want to destroy India. Whether it is diplomatic talk or political talk, Pakistan always breaks the protocol. It clearly reflects that Pakistan has more internal disturbances and instability. It can't be tackled without political will, international cooperation and mutual settlements of both the countries.
Nobody ever accused India of starting a war against Pakistan. And Pakistan never won any war against India. Nuclear weapons are not weapons of war. They are only weapons of deterrence. If one side uses its nuclear weapons, it should be prepared for retaliation in kind from the other. India has no bad schemes for Pakistan. If Pakistan stops its terrorist activity against India, then things can be normal.
Pakistan has been using terrorism as an instrument of its policy against India since 1990.  India should refuse to have any relations or concern with Pakistan unless it first ceased its terrorist activity against India.
There is indeed an alternative to talks - and that is the inevitable war that now has to be the volcanic recourse and response to terrorism. Is it wisdom to accumulate pent-up anger forever? Can terrorism be allowed to be the blackmailing tool for talks on Kashmir? Can we really deal with a dichotomous set of institutions that form a rogue nation? Have we not tried enough? Pakistan has done its' utmost to provoke India and the magnitude of Indian appeasement and tolerance has been strange, unparalleled, and unprecedented in all of history. Are we still learning statecraft? While we do live in a Global Village, to whom are we obliged to prove our levels of tolerance? And if those whom the Indians want to please haven't acknowledged our tolerance by now, they never will. Haven't we been doing this for over two decades now w/o any tangible result? Don't we have any sense of shame getting rebuffed like this by a much smaller nation for decades now and still we keep harping on talks? Best things will be to prepare ourselves to handle terror and any eventuality for retaliation. Ignore that country rather than accord unnecessary importance raising their stature even while making us look like a wimpish soft state with no sense of self pride or honor. Yes, we want economic progress - but enough is enough.
India does not want to lose any more territory after losing what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh. Pakistan still looks greedily at Muslim-majority Kashmir valley. In short India should never have been partitioned on 'religious' lines. Hindus never wanted to divide India, they wanted a united India irrespective of religion and culture.

Talks for the sake of talks are futile. Either way Pakistan will not cease its terror activities and the firing on the border, they will continue. So it is high time India thought of something else other than holding talks.

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