File picture of visa seekers ready outdoors the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi used for representational goal solely.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Photo Library
India and Pakistan ought to work in the direction of restoring High Commissioners in one another’s capitals and restarting visas, slightly than searching for “grand solutions” at the moment, mentioned former High Commissioners to Pakistan, who mentioned the current lack of engagement is unsustainable in the long term. The former envoys, together with G. Parthasarathy, Shiv Shankar Menon, Sharat Sabharwal and T.C.A. Raghavan, who collectively spanned about sixteen years of service in Islamabad (1999-2015), have been talking on the launch of a e-book by the former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan (1992-1995), Satinder Kumar Lambah, who handed away in 2022. The e-book, In Pursuit of Peace: India-Pakistan Relations beneath Six Prime Ministers chronicles peace efforts between the 2 international locations from Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi to Manmohan Singh, together with the well-known “Kashmir LoC” (Line of Control) settlement that was by no means signed, which Mr. Lambah negotiated as particular envoy.
“As a realist and a hard-nosed diplomat, Mr. Lambah knew how to keep Indian interests but also the art of compromise when required,” Mr. Sabharwal mentioned. “He also realised that not talking to a country that is a neighbour and a nuclear power, is not an option,” he added, referring to Pakistan.
Former Ambassador Parthasarathy mentioned that it was telling that each Prime Minister, together with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had sought to restore ties with Pakistan, and Mr. Modi had, as revealed within the e-book, despatched an emissary to Pakistan in 2017 to restart the again channel when the peace course of had faltered. “We must make no concession to Pakistan’s ruling establishment, but remember that India is not fighting a war against the people of Pakistan,” Mr. Parthasarathy mentioned, advocating the restoration of visas.
After the Pulwama assault and the federal government’s transfer to reorganise Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, either side downgraded ties, together with the recall of envoys and different diplomats from missions, snapping trade and journey hyperlinks, and slicing down on visas, even these given for well being and humanitarian functions. There has additionally been no political contact, though Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto and others have been invited to India this 12 months to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conferences .
Despite the dearth of political contact, the envoys identified that the India-Pakistan again channel, believed to run the engagement between National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and the Director General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has delivered a number of necessary outcomes, together with the LoC ceasefire of 2021.
Mr. Menon, who additionally handled Pakistan because the NSA (2010-2014) mentioned that Pakistan’s present financial and political troubles needs to be a warning for New Delhi, as it’s going to make India’s neighbourhood extra amenable to “outside powers” just like the U.S. and China to play out their “great power rivalry”. “Ultimately, it will be harder to prosper and grow if the neighbourhood is in chaos,” he added.
Mr. Raghavan mentioned that whereas India-Pakistan talks are wanted, it was clear that there’s little urge for food in India for engagement with Pakistan, particularly in non-border States that don’t have historic connections to the opposite aspect. “It is best to go forward with just the small things to begin with — restore High Commissioners, open the visa regime up and talk about reopening trade,” he steered, within the dialogue moderated by overseas coverage analyst C. Rajamohan.
Lambah had written the e-book earlier than he died in June 2022, however its ultimate modifying and preparation was accomplished by his spouse Nilima Lambah, who additionally spoke on the occasion, mentioning that each she and Lambah had misplaced their properties within the India-Pakistan Partition of 1947. “For those of us who lived through the Partition, stark choices had to be made — to be consumed by bitterness, or, to heal ourselves, in pursuit of higher values, and a better world. Sati [Lambah] chose the latter,” Ms. Lambah mentioned.
