Let’s move on, Mr Singh

The News International

The mood in India after the Mumbai attacks was ugly. All India had to offer was revenge. One recalls being confused that official India, not the Indian herd, was acting in the manner that it was. Its stance was so naïve, so self-defeating, so Americanesque that one actually began to fret, much as one does here at the utterances of our leaders.

Why was Manmohan Singh acting so? Did he not understand that Mumbai was a terrorist ploy to keep India and Pakistan at daggers drawn and wreck years of painstakingly constructed agreements emerging from the Composite Dialogue. Or was he, like his best friend Bush, also someone who speaks a moment or so before he thinks? And was he so weak, so much a populist, so given to bending with the wind, that he would rather wager war than risk unpopularity for the sake of preserving peace? We have the answer to that question from Mr Manmohan Singh himself.

After Mumbai Indian public opinion demanded that Pakistan be held to account. India had hoped that this would give it leverage to coerce Pakistan into paying greater attention to India's concerns, but unfortunately that had not happened; the results were not as expected. That is why, at Thiumphu, his effort was to find ways and means of getting the two countries once again back on the path of a dialogue: "If we don't want to go to war, then engagement and dialogue are the only way forward," as he told Indian newspaper editors on Sept 7. Welcome aboard, Mr Singh; you have got it right, finally.

If Mr Singh cares to recall, this is what some of us had said would occur. As for the Indian herd, namely the public and their opinion, Disraeli said there is no such thing as "public opinion," there is only "public sentiment." Besides, one knows how this sentiment is formed. It is a brew of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, sound bites, headlines and newspaper paragraphs. As a politician Mr Singh must no doubt bear public opinion in mind for the next election, but as a statesman he must think of the next generation. Hence, he should not let truth go a-begging. He should tell his compatriots that nations do not make peace with friends but rather with unsavoury enemies, like Pakistan, and persuade them to let him work at it. It appears that he may be getting around to doing so. He therefore deserves support.

In case Mr Singh fears for the future, so do we; because the closer India and Pakistan get to cobbling peace the greater the prospect-nay, certainty-of another terrorist attack on India emanating possibly from Pakistan soil or with Pakistani connections. Hence, when that happens, despite all our precautions, Mr Singh should not go tub-thumping and making menacing gestures, and accuse Pakistan of promoting it; or queer the pitch for negotiations once again. We need to get a grip on the terrorist monster more than India does. By helping Pakistan Mr Singh will be helping India. Threaten Pakistan, and Osama bin Laden, if dead, will be smiling in his grave; attack Pakistan and bin Laden, if alive, will be doing a jig around his dialysis machine.

Mr Singh should now proceed with alacrity because he has wasted enough time to:

- Announce that India is now ready to resume the Composite Dialogue where it was broken off; offer to conclude the agreement on Sir Creek that has been finalised, and remove the persisting small difference on Siachin.

- Announce, further, that he will be sending/allowing Indian officials to testify against those arrested and now on trial in Pakistan for complicity in the Mumbai attacks in the hope of securing their conviction and not to let the guilty off merely on account of non-fulfilment of procedural requirements.

- Understand that while he can deal with the Naxalites as he wishes, when it comes to Kashmir he cannot, at least not without enraging us across the Line of Control. Mr Singh should deal with the Kashmiri leadership; and to understand how they define Azadi and to see if there can be a meeting of minds. It is true Pakistan cannot wrest Kashmir by force from India. But is it not equally true that India cannot retain Kashmir by force and expect that India's image and peace of mind will not suffer the consequences, to say nothing of its security?

- Be prepared to address Pakistan's reasonable military concerns, and specifically what meaningful measures could be taken that would lessen the threat of an armed Indian incursion into Pakistan. India will not need to disarm to appear accommodating because there are many ways of skinning this cat. And, of course, to abandon Cold Start, a pernicious doctrine that has triggered endless preparations for a hot response.

- Finally, offer to revisit the Indus Waters Treaty to take into account Pakistan's concerns. Eventually this treaty will have to be revised. Climate change, rather than any other factor, has made this obvious.

Such steps and/or others similar in nature would have a huge impact on the atmospherics. They will lend efforts for peace considerable momentum. They would also put Pakistan under considerable pressure to respond. They would strengthen the hands of those here who believe that an equable relationship with India is not only possible but essential. If then Mr Singh truly desires peace, as many feel that he does, he should not follow a path that makes it impossible.

Needless to say hurdles will arise and on occasions despair may result. That is in the very nature of India-Pakistan negotiations. Often we are our own worst enemies. However, that is not reason enough to give up. Moreover, his having been instrumental in righting India's economic policies, what would be a more fitting legacy for Mr Singh than to complete a distinguished period in public life by aligning India's relations with Pakistan in a manner that the single-biggest threat to India's security and steady economic growth is diminished, if not entirely removed.

Go for it, Mr Singh; you have cogitated long enough. The globe-trotting Shah Mehmood Qureshi would be in Delhi in a jiffy at the first signs of a change of heart on your part. Let's not live as if we are going to live forever.

The writer is a former ambassador. Email: charles123it@hotmail.com