Heart of Asia Summit: Is there any good reason to accommodate Sartaj Aziz in Amritsar?

Why did Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz arrive in Amritsar fifteen hours before schedule and why was it allowed? It is not even an hour’s flight so there must have been good reason besides the obvious one of putting Indians on the backfoot as the bureaucrats adjusted the accommodate him. Make them scurry around. That is the operative word. Accommodation. The Hearts of Asia conference is about Afghanistan and while technically the Foreign Minister of Pakistan is a delegate, weren’t we supposed to get some sort of traction from the other side of the border by way of assurances that terrorism would have to terminate its relationship with state sponsorship. Suddenly we have their Foreign Minster pop in prematurely and that kind of puts paid to all the outrage over Pampore, Uri, Samba, the mutilation of our soldier in Maalchi and our absolute conviction that Pakistan’s authorities were integral to all these acts of unbridled horror. It was JFK who said we should never negotiate out of fear but we should never fear to negotiate. [caption id=“attachment_2858906” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Sartaj Aziz. Reuters[/caption] To that extent one concedes that every opportunity to try and end the 70 years of distrust should be grabbed and an attempt made to work out a truce. But that said, why is it always India that has to be the bigger person. There is a depressing sense of déjà vu about this meeting in Amritsar because in many ways we have closed the chapter on all the incidents that occurred on the border till 4 December, 2016. Today. Once you shake hands and break bread that becomes the latest milestone on this arduous and exhausting Indo-Pak journey and everything else liquefies and turns into water under the bridge. However unpleasant the current equation we have shifted today from boycotting Pakistan across the board to suddenly playing host, reluctant, but still host. It is no coincidence that the Pakistan Cricket Board uses this very day to announce how it will not cut off ties with India and now we are like the bad guys who aren’t being sporting and largehearted. They always manage to twist the scenario and produce this ‘reasonable, balanced’ rationale while we are saluting martyrs. And this is where one balks at the idea of giving in without some guarantees. The moment the wheels of the Foreign Secretary’s plane touched down on Indian soil the initiative became his to run with. Perhaps it would have been churlish to say come back later but someone in authority has to quantify what exactly India has gained from Pakistan before igniting talks if they are an a multi-lateral forum. One just feels at such times that we take the blows on the chin and create a major wave of promised retaliation that kind of disappears like the morning fog. We will talk, Sartaj will mumble the same stuff about co-operation and mutual trust and TV talk shows will analyse the same old, same old and all those attacks and assaults on our bases and the litany of the dead will be consigned to the history books. At least get something tangible out of him before he leaves.