Binoo Joshi
The secret meeting of the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan in Thai capital Bangkok should be seen in the positive light rather than being weighed in as a contradictory approach of the Narendra Modi Government vis-à-vis Pakistan .
Some have placed two versions “ talks and terrorism cannot go together “ and the secret meeting of the Indian NSA Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Naseer Janjua in Bangkok in opposite frames . This is misreading of the situation that the two nuclear weapon armed neighbours in South Asia face within their own boundaries. India is victim of Pakistan sponsored terrorism . There is little dispute about it . The frequency of the attacks from across the border – on Line of Control and international border in Jammu and Kashmir as also the terror attacks like 26/11 and December 13, 2001 Parliament attack are some of the unforgettable tragedies . Pakistan knows that it has done it . There is no point in charging its non-state actors with these acts of horrendous violence. The non-state actors and the state actors are indistinguishable in Pakistan and no one knows it better than the people of Pakistan.
Pakistan has done two things . It has wounded itself by patronizing terrorists and thinking that these terror networks can be used against its neighbours ,India and Afghanistan , to achieve its foreign policy goals . It wants strategic depth in Afghanistan , which it treats now as its backyard on which it should have full control , and it wants to avenge the humiliation of 1971 war in which its East wing was lost for ever.
That is the situation , but should that be allowed to be a permanent feature in the relationship of the two countries that share common heritage, culture , languages and also shrines. This face-off situation is not the answer to the problems. The dialogue holds the promise. The back channel is necessary to open the doors to the visible dialogue .
It should always be kept in mind that what India and Pakistan can do between themselves, no third party can do that . Prime Minister Modi is a firm believer of the bilateralism in resolving the issues . The secret meeting was an expression of that.
That the meeting between the two NSAs made it to media explains that it was not to be kept under wraps . Had the two wished it to remain secret, it would have remained secret . There is something more than what meets the eye and that , it seems, is good for Delhi and Islamabad.