Pakistan can't keep its word: What Modi govt must learn from Sartaj Aziz's somersault

There is nothing new in what has happened on Monday for India as a nation though it may be new for the Narendra Modi government: the complete U-turn made by Pakistan which goes contrary to its public stance unveiled in Russia three days ago. One step forward, two steps backward. That’s how one can characterise Pakistan’s somersault on the five-point roadmap of bilateral engagement with India in Ufa, Russia on Friday after a rare summit meeting between the two prime ministers. [caption id=“attachment_2340428” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sartaj Aziz. AFP[/caption] Sartaj Aziz, who is prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s advisor on security and foreign affairs and a veritable national security advisor and foreign minister, said his government will not compromise on the country’s “dignity and honour”. He also said there can’t be any dialogue with India unless the Kashmir issue was on the agenda. He virtually ruled out any concession on the 26/11 probe, stalled for over six years, with the familiar remark that India needed to give more evidence. Moreover, the advocate of Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged operational chief of the 26/11 terror attacks against India, has already gone on record as saying that Lakhvi won’t be giving his voice samples to anyone. Pakistan has twisted the knife further and come up with yet another familiar provocation as its high commissioner in India has invited Kashmiri separatists for an Eid party on 21 July. Interestingly, the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi had held back its earlier invite to the Kashmiri separatists days before the high-octane summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Russia. The message is crystal clear. Pakistan has dared India to take a call on the five-point Ufa roadmap and scrap it if New Delhi can, given the fact that India had unilaterally cancelled the foreign secretary-level talks last August on the same ground. The five-point roadmap, announced by the two countries’ foreign secretaries at a rare joint media event in Ufa on 10 July, promised the following: (i) A meeting in New Delhi between the two NSAs to discuss all issues connected to terrorism; (ii) Early meetings of DG BSF and DG Pakistan Rangers followed by that of DGMOs; (iii) Decision for release of fishermen in each other’s custody, along with their boats, within a period of 15 days; (iv) Mechanism for facilitating religious tourism; (v) Both sides agreed to discuss ways and means to expedite the Mumbai case trial, including additional information like providing voice samples. The BJP had promptly described the Ufa summit as a “gamechanger” and a “breakthrough”. The public remarks by Sartaj Aziz on Monday have come as a rude shock and a dampener for the BJP. Expectedly, the Congress reaction has been fast and furious. This is what Congress leader Ajay Maken said, “The situation is the same at the ground level. What has come out is not surprising because we never felt that there is a breakthrough contrary to what BJP was claiming. So what Sartaj has said is clearly something which the BJP has to reply now because BJP always claimed credit that they have attained some breakthrough.” For its part, the BJP downplayed Aziz’s statement and said it was meant for Pakistan’s domestic constituency. “A lot of statement coming from others are also possibly intended to address their domestic constituencies. As far as we are concerned, the discussion, engagement will largely happen on the lines of the joint statement,” BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said. The Pakistani game plan is simple. It allowed India a Pyrrhic victory in Ufa mainly under international pressure, though Islamabad has repeatedly said it was PM Modi who had sought a meeting with Sharif. But now it has come back to its old ways by attaching new conditions and shifting the goal posts and put the Modi government in a Catch-22 situation. The dilemma for the Modi government will be this: should it go ahead with the Ufa spirit and hold talks with Pakistan despite the fact that nothing has changed or should it scrap the proposed talks once again and risk its international image as an uncompromising hawk. Either way it is bad for the Modi government. An important lesson that the Modi government would have learnt from Sartaj Aziz’s public remarks on Monday is that Pakistan can go back even on written statements and give a new twist to the written pledges. This is something that the Modi government is experiencing for the first time in its dealing with Pakistan. It will be interesting to see if even after all this India thinks that the Ufa joint statement is a sacred document and goes ahead with the proposed meetings!