The relationship between India and Pakistan took centerstage during a session with former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri
Interrelations of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan took centerstage at the Jaipur lit Fest where panellists discussed the upswing in talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan besides India’s ties with its neighbour.
Former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri expressed the need for a “high degree of optimism” in dealing with relations between India and Pakistan, while former Indian diplomat G Parthasarathy called for “a halt in border firing” to ensure the continuation of meaningful dialogues. “You cannot have a dialogue when bullets are flying. Nobody hears the sound of the dialogue everyone hears the sound of the bullet,” Parthasarathy said.
Kasuri and Parthasarathy were participating in a session titled ‘Descent into Chaos-Pakistan on the Brink’ at the festival. Ahmed Rashid, an expert on foreign policy who has authored several books about Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, pointed out that both of India’s neighbours had been through a crisis in recent times.
Commenting on the recent elections in Afghanistan, which took place in the midst of a massive Taliban offensive, Rashid said, “Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have dramatically improved and chances are there that Afghanistan may enter into dialogue with the Afghan Taliban. It can happen only if Pakistani military push for it because most of the Taliban leadership live in Pakistan. Pakistani military has to push Taliban into the dialogue,” Rashid said.
He pointed out that the Peshawar attack, which left nearly 150 school children dead last month, served as “a horrible warning” galvanising political parties, government, military to come together on a common platform against extremism. “They have established a long term plan which not just deals with military aspects of terrorism but also with education, jobs,madarsa and other such things,” he said.