One day he talks of war, another day of peace
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cannot make up his mind on whether he wants to improve relations with India or continue to sabre-rattle. Days after he reportedly spoke of a fourth war between the two nuclear powers over the Kashmir issue, while addressing the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Mr Sharif is now claiming that there is no option but for Pakistan to live in peace with India. If he had played to the gallery in the first instance, he has been diplomacy personified when he assured Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan TCA Raghavan that Islamabad staunchly believed in friendly relations with India. It is difficult to believe one statement of his without rejecting the other. The problem is: Which is the real one and which is rhetoricalIJ Mr Sharif cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hound. He cannot at once speak the language of aggression and of peace, and expect India to trust him. New Delhi has already been rather generous in its assessment of the Pakistani Prime Minister. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reached out to him in the US despite strong reservations back home over the wisdom in having such a high-level engagement when Pakistan has shown no tangible progress in addressing various issues that affect India's security interests, whether it is the Mumbai attacks or the other instances of cross-border terrorism or the recent violations of the ceasefire agreement along the line of Control.
But even in the US, Mr Sharif had played his favourite game. He raked up the Kashmir issue, pleaded with US President Barack Obama to intervene in what has been acknowledged the world over and certainly by successive US administrations as a bilateral dispute, and reportedly ridiculed Mr Singh at a Press meet, comparing him to a village woman who constantly nagged. He was referring to Mr Singh's appeal that Washington, DC, must make Islamabad see reason on matters that affect India. There is not one thing that Mr Sharif has done since he took over which indicates he is serious about writing a new chapter in India-Pakistan relations. In fact, he has further disturbed an already troublesome status quo, when a Provincial regime led by his brother released Government funds some months ago to an organisation headed by 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed. Mr Sharif knew that such a move would vitiate the atmosphere, yet he did not question the decision. It is clear that Mr Sharif, like his immediate predecessors, does not have the political desire to change things for the better.
A generous interpretation of Mr Sharif's inaction is that since there is political uncertainty in India, he is waiting for a new Government to take charge in New Delhi to unveil new measures. Given the hold that Pakistan's Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence have on that country's policy vis-à-vis India, he is unlikely to write a new script any time soon. Of course, it is true that India presently has a lame duck regime and that the UPA is all but certain to be voted out six months from now. But, that's no excuse for Mr Sharif to alternately harangue and croon and expect India to be appropriately terrified and won over. Mr Sharif's credibility quotient is low and he must fix the problem.