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Will Indo-Pak ties improve?

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury
A recent and rare meeting between the prime ministers of arch rivals India and Pakistan on one hand raised prospects of a thaw in the bitter bilateral ties and on the other triggered anger and consternation back in New Delhi. Indian premier Dr. Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the just-concluded nonaligned summit in Egypt have pledged to cooperate with each other in combating terrorism and many saw the development as much-needed broad accord at the highest level to normalise the relationship.
New Delhi-Islamabad ties have been badly affected by the terror attack in
Indian commercial capital Mumbai in November last year when many were killed and injured with India pointing the fingers at Pakistan since the attackers came from that country. After the meeting Egypt said that actions against tenor-ism "should not be linked" with peace talks between the two nuclear-armed rivals. When this statement raised hopes for early talks between the two sides, Dr. Singh faced angry protests in parliament as the opposition charged him with "compromising” on Indian position on the issue.
So far. New Delhi had stated that there would be no dialogue unless Islamabad brings the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to book Main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader
in parliament Lal Krishna Advani accused the prime minister of giving too much "concessions" to Pakistan by agreeing to talks since Islamabad has not taken actions against the attackers. Advani even staged a walkout from the house on the issue, evidently leaving the government on the defensive.
Later, Singh in the parliament appeared to have hardened his stance as he said talks are unlikely unless Pakistan moved forward by taking actions against the Mumbai attackers. Consequently, the possibility of the dialogue nowonce again seems uncertain while the Indian opposition prefer a tougher stand against Islamabad on the terrorism issue. A section of the Indian press is also critical of the latest government position on the subject.
India and Pakistan were in the process of normalising their often-battered relations while keeping the main disputes like the “Kashmir" on the backburner. The composite dialogue at various levels --mainly between the foreign secretaries -did produce good results as they cooper ated in various fields to promote ties. Then came the Mumbai attack that killed
166 persons and the bilateral relationship took a nosedive.
However, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (NDA) government headed by Dr. Singh preferred diplomacy to BJP's jingoistic call and sought to calm down the tensions by asking Pakistan to act effectively against the attackers. One of the surviving attackers Ajmal Kashab is facing trial in India on the charge.
During the recent Indian national elections, BJP attacked the government of being soft towards Pakistan on the issue while Dr. Singh and the then foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee defended government position. The. ruling coalition won the polls and it was concluded that its mature and wide policy was approved by the people rejecting BJP's tough stand.
But things did not improve and an informal meeting between Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and Indian premier Singh on the sidelines of the Shanghai cooperation council meting in Russia in June helped in thawing the ties that led to the Singh-Gilani contacts in Egypt. As far as the meeting is concerned, two sides seemed happy although the
task was mainly on Pakistan as it promised to take measures against the Mumbai offenders.
"Whatever he(Singh) has said on the floor of the house in India, I think that is the stand which we took and I think that is going to help the two countries in moving forward" Gilani said about their discussions. He also said that his country was probing the case of Mumbai attack. India has said that the Pakistan-based militant organization “Laskar-c-Taiba" is behind the attack in Mumbai and that it has evidence that Pakistan official agencies too were involved in many ways.
Not unexpectedly, Islamabad denies the charge saying state-actors were not involved at all. It remains to be seen how India produces the evidences.
Obviously pressure is mounting on Pakistan for quick actions against the Mumbai attackers and the government has to move effectively on the issue. The pressure has increased as United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton during a visit to New Delhi has called for such actions from Pakistan. However, she favours Indo-Pakistan greater contacts and joint actions in defeating terrorism in
the region.
Needless to say that Washington's key ally Pakistan, in combating terror, can not turn a blind eye to Hillary's comment. But the American top diplomat had word of praise for Islamabad too as she believed the government there was sincere and working seriously against the terrorists.
Indo-Pakistan ties are quite complex and their topsy-turvy relations have definitely a big bearing in the South Asian region. The political stability and a congenial atmosphere here is largely contingent upon a relatively normal New Delhi-Islamabad relationship. It is imperative that two rivals improve their ties not only for their sake, but also for the entire region. To facilitate the process meaningfully, two sides need to move and since the onus lies on Pakistan to take on the Mumbai attackers, Islamabad must act on the grave matter decisively. In such an event, the bottlenecks on the resumption of the process of dialogue can be removed.
Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury is a senior journals! and analyst on international issues.