History beckons over Kashmir

[varun]

Though skeptical of these latest peace moves, I am hoping that something good comes of these negotiations...
:thumbsup:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3383845.stm

Mark Tully
Former BBC South Asia correspondent, Delhi


Transport links have re-opened, cricket tours are planned. And now this week, India and Pakistan have announced they are to end their hostile relationship and enter peace talks to include the vexed question of Kashmir.

Historic is the adjective being widely used to describe this agreement between the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee and President Musharraf of Pakistan, but it is only history in the making and who is to say whether history will eventually be made.


More than 30 years ago I witnessed the handshake between another Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan in Simla.

The two leaders not only agreed to hand over the prisoners and territory captured during the Bangladesh war - there was also a so-called secret, but in fact widely known, agreement that they would recognise the line of control dividing Kashmir as the international border.

In other words, end the Kashmir dispute.

Bitter pill

But this turned out to be too bitter a pill for Bhutto to swallow because it meant giving up Pakistan's claim on the valley which is the heart of Kashmir.

Since then there have been several other false starts....

[varun]

1. Why India and Pakistan are talking again...

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107386662722510100,00.html (subscription required)

from Today's WSJ:

January 12, 2004
COMMENTARY

India's Man in Pakistan
By SWAPAN DASGUPTA

Three months ago, India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf used the U.N. General Assembly session in New York to launch tirades against each other. The normally restrained Mr. Vajpayee charged Gen. Musharraf with using terrorism as "blackmail" and the latter accused India of recklessly violating human rights in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It speaks volumes about the shifting sands of diplomacy that the two shook hands and issued a joint statement in Islamabad last week, one that could see the countries talking to each other rather than arousing further international fears of nuclear adventurism.

The crucial sentence that facilitated the formal return to civility was Gen. Musharraf's reassurance that "he will not permit any territory under Pakistan's control to be used to support terrorism in any manner." India has long insisted that the troubles in Jammu and Kashmir were the result of "cross-border terrorism" mounted by Islamist jihadis, recruited and trained in Pakistan. It maintained that no dialogue was possible until Pakistan disowned terrorism unequivocally. With Gen. Musharraf making that commitment, India expressed its willingness to negotiate the gamut of bilateral issues, including Kashmir.

For Mr. Vajpayee, the Islamabad statement is a personal triumph. Last April, he left his colleagues in the government stupefied by unilaterally extending his "hand of friendship" to Pakistan. Since then, despite many hiccups, he has persisted with a stream of confidence-building measures aimed at restoring normal relations between the two countries.

Mr. Vajpayee's dogged insistence on evolving a working relationship with Pakistan was based on two premises. First, in the aftermath of Iraq, he became convinced that unless India and Pakistan agreed to shun hostility it would prepare the ground for greater international involvement in South Asia. This, he felt, would not be in India's interests. Secondly, with India in the midst of an economic boom and a surge in middle-class self-confidence, Mr. Vajpayee rightly perceived the tensions with neighbors to be a monumental distraction. Unlike some of his more pugnacious colleagues, he felt that the cause of Hindu nationalism would be better served through an explosion of pride in the country's economy than by raising the pitch of anti-Pakistan rhetoric. The sticking point was Pakistan's unrelenting endorsement of the "liberation struggle" which involved gruesome acts of jihadi terror. With Gen. Musharraf finally yielding ground on this issue -- thanks in no small measure to sustained U.S. pressure on his government -- the stage may be set for a more wholesome phase in India-Pakistan relations.,...
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What remains to be seen is how much of Pakistan is under Musharraf's control. Musharraf has promised many things in the past...but has failed to deliver.

[bemildred]

2. Very interesting.

Bush the uniter strikes again.

Mr. Vajpayee looks to be a smart man on this reading, and one
has to give points to Gen. Musharraf as well, both for being
willing to take "yes" for an answer. An especially nice quote:

the cause of Hindu nationalism would be better served through
an explosion of pride in the country's economy than by raising
the pitch of anti-Pakistan rhetoric