Parliamentarians and diplomats are awaiting external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to explain, the rationale behind the sudden turn of government stand vis-a-vis resumption of dialogue with Pakistan. Though, she has returned to Delhi, she will be making a statement in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Officials here have refused to disclose the specifics of what was discussed in either Bangkok or at Islamabad – and also why the Modi government retracted from a hard posture. Their single reply is that Swaraj will explain everything in Parliament.
Amidst rucks created by Congress MPs in Rajya Sabha, she was seen confabulating with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, possibly briefing him about her visit. Sources here said, Swaraj has expressed willingness to take queries in the House after her statement, though that is not the practice in the Lok Sabha.
Days after telling Lok Sabha, that government was invoking the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to punish Pakistan for war crimes, the latest overtures and secret meeting between the two National Security Advisors (NSAs) in Bangkok has left many puzzled. India also for the first time dropped even oblique references to Pakistan-sourced terrorism in Afghanistan in a speech by Swaraj at the Heart of Asia conference in Islamabad. Earlier since 2011, Indian delegates representing the conference, had been consistently blaming Pakistan for the instability and violence in Afghanistan .
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar believes that the outcome underscores that Pakistan has got exactly what it wanted, but many experts point out, India has achieved a milestone, by dropping word “composite” from the dialogue process. What India has agreed is a “Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue” that does not link progress of issues with each other.
Prof. Sajad Padder, scholar at the Heidelberg on South Asian and Comparative Politics, recalls that the roots of India-Pakistan Composite Dialogue Process dated back to May 1997, when at Male, the capital of Maldives, the then Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and his Pakistani counter part Nawaz Sharif mooted the idea of a structured dialogue or the Composite Dialogue Process. Based on a compromise approach, the peace process enabled the two countries to discuss all issues including Jammu and Kashmir, simultaneously. “It was a compromise in the sense that while India agreed to include Kashmir in the agenda for talks, Pakistan relented to include terrorism, the two major irritants in bilateral relations,” he said.
The stage for both the NSA and the foreign minister’s meetings was set, when the Prime Ministers of the two nations had met on November 30 in Paris. Further, Pakistan appointing a recently retired military man Lieutenant General Naseer Khan Janjua, as national security advisor replacing Sartaj Aziz did also address to India’s long standing issue of not having any credible interlocutor in Islamabad who can exercise effective control. Senior Fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) Sushant Sareen, who has been batting for opening a channel with Pakistan Army like Americans and other Western nations, rather depending on civilian government or civil society, says the latest arrangement could help to convey concerns directly to those who matter in Islamabad power structure