Pak recalls envoy

IT may not have been a coincidence that the day India offered to exchange old, infirm and women prisoners with Pakistan on humanitarian grounds — which is a gambit by another name for reopening conversation — its envoy in New Delhi began complaining of harassment by India’s security minders. Pakistan has now recalled its envoy which in diplomatese stands for expression of extreme displeasure. India-Pakistan ties have gone through worst phases including the frog-marching of each other’s envoys across the border accompanied by a vigorous blame game. In this instance, India has handled the present acrimony with restraint, suggesting that it is not yet closing the doors on intermittent civil dialogue despite the Modi government’s red lines on terror.

However, Pakistan’s reaction underlines a deeper dilemma that may have activated the spoilers of Indo-Pak dialogue nestled in its corner. Its security agencies, in a tussle for supremacy with deposed PM Nawaz Sharif, have been irked by Financial Action Task Force’s blackballing of Pakistan entirely due to South Block’s exertions as well as by New Delhi’s unrelenting anti-Pakistan tirade that intrudes into political contestations. Pakistan may also be playing hard to get because the Trump Administration’s bid to negotiate with the Taliban requires cooperation from Islamabad. 

India’s current drive to achieve a larger geographical footprint of influence rather than getting entangled in acrimonies in the locality may have guided its guarded response to the Pakistani envoy’s protestations. Successful India-Pakistan negotiations are rare. But along with the stick that the Modi government purports to wield against Pakistan, it needs to include a carrot as well. In fact, India needs to add its voice to that of Iran and Russia cautioning against competition between transport corridors that could render all of them economically unviable. In Kashmir Valley, the Mehbooba government has accepted some of the Central Interlocutor’s recommendations to ease tensions. Normalcy is a long haul in Kashmir and is susceptible to motivated disruptions. But an improvement in climate would strengthen India’s hands in initiating a limited dialogue for the progression of its plans for the wider region.