On February 26, 2010, the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan met in New Delhi. As has been the trend, India gave 3 dossiers to Pakistan and then said that the next round of talks will happen after Pakistan responds to them. And Pakistan hasn't yet responded to them. True to our stand, the secretaries did not meet. But hey, we never said the Prime Ministers will not meet right? So, in Thimpu this week, the Prime Ministers of both the countries met. Infact, they even went for a stroll, at the "insistence" of the summit leaders. (by the way,If you are wondering what Summit - the SAARC summit. Wouldn't blame you for forgetting that, given the fact that SAARC has been reduced to this bilateral farce long ago! )
Anyways, post the "stroll" and then a one-on-one meeting, it was decided that the dialogue process will be put back on track. A cursory (and not even careful) reading of the news reports clearly tells us there are no specifics that have been decided as of yet. What will the two countries talk about? Siddarth Varadarajan "analyses" that "...but the Manmohan Singh government will need more than mere words in order to convince sceptics at home.". What is very conveiniently forgotten is that the Prime Minister himself is not convinced, so where does the option arise to convince "sceptics" at home?
We have not been told what action has been taken by Pakistan. Frequently, we hear the Home Minister, the External Affairs Minister, and the Defence Minister say they are not at all satisfied with what Pakistan has done. Yet, the Prime Minister does not care for these sentiments. He seems to be trying hard to please the world community, that he is ready to leave a legacy of peace behind him, no matter how many times we are attacked. The sense of urgency the Prime Minister is showing to get talks back on track is plain baffling. And more importantly, the reasons cited (if any) are totally misleading. The only lesson that we seem to have learnt from the Sharm-el-Sheikh summit is that there will no joint statements after the two PM's meet.
Pakistan now knows that happen what may, we will continue to give dossiers. And then we will talk. It doesn't matter if any action has been taken on the Dossier. Talks will happen, and it is always a win-win situation for Pak at the world stage.
Nothing changed after the Feb. 26th meeting; nothing changed from the time Chidambaram, recently, publicly rebuked the High Commisioner of Pakistan; nothing changed from the last time A.K.Anthony told us that there are 42 training camps across the LoC, training for we all know what; Hell, nothing changed from the last time, I wrote this letter to the Prime Minister. Every single point is valid today too. Yet, we shall talk.
Anyways, post the "stroll" and then a one-on-one meeting, it was decided that the dialogue process will be put back on track. A cursory (and not even careful) reading of the news reports clearly tells us there are no specifics that have been decided as of yet. What will the two countries talk about? Siddarth Varadarajan "analyses" that "...but the Manmohan Singh government will need more than mere words in order to convince sceptics at home.". What is very conveiniently forgotten is that the Prime Minister himself is not convinced, so where does the option arise to convince "sceptics" at home?
We have not been told what action has been taken by Pakistan. Frequently, we hear the Home Minister, the External Affairs Minister, and the Defence Minister say they are not at all satisfied with what Pakistan has done. Yet, the Prime Minister does not care for these sentiments. He seems to be trying hard to please the world community, that he is ready to leave a legacy of peace behind him, no matter how many times we are attacked. The sense of urgency the Prime Minister is showing to get talks back on track is plain baffling. And more importantly, the reasons cited (if any) are totally misleading. The only lesson that we seem to have learnt from the Sharm-el-Sheikh summit is that there will no joint statements after the two PM's meet.
Pakistan now knows that happen what may, we will continue to give dossiers. And then we will talk. It doesn't matter if any action has been taken on the Dossier. Talks will happen, and it is always a win-win situation for Pak at the world stage.
Nothing changed after the Feb. 26th meeting; nothing changed from the time Chidambaram, recently, publicly rebuked the High Commisioner of Pakistan; nothing changed from the last time A.K.Anthony told us that there are 42 training camps across the LoC, training for we all know what; Hell, nothing changed from the last time, I wrote this letter to the Prime Minister. Every single point is valid today too. Yet, we shall talk.
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