Binoo Joshi
J K News Today Commentary
Good news has started coming from Delhi and Islamabad that India and Pakistan foreign ministers are going to meet . It is a meeting and not a dialogue . It has been clarified to avert the ascension of hopes to an altitude from where the fall would have negative impacts .
Nevertheless, the fact remains that there could have been no better tidings than the news that the Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi would be meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York sometime this month.
Such a news that holds even the thinnest thread of meetings can open the door gates of more meetings. Which may lead to a formal dialogue .
That a mere idea of the proposed meeting between the two nations in New York has aroused so much excitement is a mirror of the mood of the peoples on the both sides of the border .This idea needs promotion in a narrative in the two countries so that the leadership understands the importance of reconciliation .
For the people of Jammu and Kashmir , such signs , howsoever , faint hold a great significance . There are more than one reasons for this because the State suffers when guns roar on borders – that cause the death and injuries and loss forever. No amount of compensation can ever compensate for peace that the people long for.
What is expected of Pakistan is essentially what the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told media in Jammu on Monday that “ Pakistan should know how to behave with a neighbour”. This is in keeping with the line of late Prime Minister who said that while ,’ we had the luxury to choose our friends , but that choice cannot be applied to neighbours. “ Neighbours cannot be changed . They are born in the neighbourhood and cannot be shifted.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made several attempts in the past four years to initiate dialogue and foster friendship with Pakistan in a fond hope that the steps would be reciprocated and the two nations would be able to devote their energies and resources in decimating poverty, illiteracy and backwardness . These attempts were rebuffed with terror attacks in Pathankot, Uri , Nagrota and so many other places .
India has exhibited that it can rise above the minor irritants , but the terror that bleeds the nation and impacts the children who are our future , then such acts become intolerable . That strengthens the phrase that “ terror and talks cannot go together.”
Anyways, it is a good beginning that is knocking at the doors of the two countries . It should be capitalized and the pathway should be opened for future building of relationship between the two countries in a terror-free atmosphere.
