Abdul Basit puts up an unconvincing defence
Had everything gone well, India and Pakistan would have made a fresh beginning on August 25 with a meeting of their Foreign Secretaries. Unfortunately, Pakistan chose to miscalculate New Delhi's determination, especially with a Government led by a no-nonsense Prime Minister at the helm. Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit ignored an official warning by India that his proposed meeting with Kashmiri separatists would derail the forthcoming talks, and went ahead with the dialogue.
Now that India has called off the Foreign Secretary level meet, Pakistan and Mr Basit personally have gone to town claiming that the Indian reaction was disproportionate to their action. Pakistan's High Commissioner put up a rather weak defence at a Press interaction on Wednesday, claiming that his meetings with the separatists were part of the peace process which would benefit both India and Pakistan.
The silliness of the argument was exposed when New Delhi curtly reminded Islamabad that the Simla Agreement provided for the resolution of the Kashmir issue strictly on a bilateral basis. This fits in with the Narendra Modi Government's firm position that Pakistan talks either to the separatists or to the Government. Mr Basit's insists that it is important to engage with “all stakeholders”, but he has been unable to explain what makes him believe that these separatists are stakeholders. They have not been elected by the people to represent them — none of them has had the courage to face a democratic election in the State they claim to represent. The only people they lead are anti-India agitationists who routinely create trouble in the Kashmir valley, organise strikes and shut-downs, and terrorise people into toeing their line. They conduct these disruptionist activities with the moral and financial backing of Pakistani state and non-state actors. In other words, the separatists are agents of Pakistan, and this is the reason why Mr Basit and his predecessors have been especially indulgent towards them.
Mr Basit believes that interactions with the separatists are “helpful to find peaceful solutions to the problem”. This is laughable. For years Pakistan has been engaged in this dubious diplomacy of entertaining the separatists, and the two countries are no closer to a solution. On the contrary, Islamabad's engagement with the separatists has pushed back the peace process because it has vitiated the environment — the latest incident being a case in point. Moreover, when separatists meet Pakistani representatives, whether in India or in Pakistan, the only thing they do is to run down India.
Pakistan's High Commissioner must understand that he is in India to strengthen relations between the two countries and not to damage them. Unfortunately, he appeared intent on destroying the goodwill that had been generated by the visit of Pakistan's Prime Minister to India for Mr Modi's oath-taking ceremony. That goodwill had resulted in a resolve from both sides to make a fresh start — the foreign Secretary level talks was meant to prepare the ground for that. Heavens would not have fallen had Mr Basit desisted from meeting the separatists after India's objection. Since the envoy was directed (either by Islamabad or Rawalpindi) to be confrontationist, it is for Pakistan to mend the damage it has done.