Ind foreign policy to improve Indo-Pak relations

New Delhi, Jan 21: India and Pakistan must keep their relations independent of their individual engagement with the United States and rein in fundamentalists on both sides to resolve all outstanding issues and establish lasting peace in the region, experts suggest.

India, Pakistan and the US are engaged in a 'triangular relationship' with the US at the top guiding both the governments in a way which serves best its strategic interests in the region, various scholars and activists asserted at a seminar on the India-Pakistan peace process organised by the Delhi chapter of Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy here on Friday.

They also asserted the 'centrality' of the Kashmir issue for the betterment of relations between the two countries.

''To make any real headway in their relations, both India and Pakistan must move out of this 'triangle' and have an independent assessment of all the bilateral issues, an approach which would be oblivious to their engagement with the US,'' Prof Achin Vinayak of the Delhi University said.

Ever since the 9/11 attacks, the US engagement in the region is at its peak. Both India and Pakistan are vital geo-politically for the US interests in Central and West Asia and peace among the two nuclear-capable neighbours is ''absolutely necessary'' for the only world power's interests in the region.

This could be seen in terms of what transpired after the Kargil conflict. Though not a military defeat, Kargil was a political and diplomatic defeat for Pakistan. But after the bloodless coup and taking over of a ''military government'' in Pakistan, the scenario underwent a sea change, Prof Vinayak said.

Though India had always been an important factor in the US policy for the region, Pakistan after 9/11 attacks soared to the heights of becoming a ''strategic ally'' of Washington. But Gen Musharraf had to turn against the Taliban, a longtime ally of Islamabad, and engage in a comprehensive dialogue with India to please his masters in the US. ''This did not go down well with the fundamentalist elements in his constituency, who were up in arms against their military ruler,'' he explained.

He said the fundamentalist forces on both sides must be defeated and India must play a greater role in strengthening and promoting democratisation in Pakistan for reaching any concrete solution to the outstanding issues between the two neighbours.

Asserting that for any real progress on the Kashmir issue, the people of the strife-torn state should be given a greater role, he said, adding it was the time that efforts be made to evolve some real representative political outfits for Kashmiris as those which exist now serve the interests of the either government only.

He further said the fact that both the countries were nuclear-capable nations must not be forgotten while evolving a long-term policy for establishing peace in the region.

Dr Noor Ahmed Baba of the Kashmir University said the composite dialogue process had failed to yield anything significant for the common Kashmiris. He said the problem should also be viewed from a historical perspective and both the countries must remember that the Kashmir issue was not only ''a territorial issue, but also an issue of the people of Kashmir''.

He said during the decades-long militancy in the region it was not just that the people who had suffered, ''even the economy and ecology of Kashmir have been destroyed''.

Dr Baba called for people-specific CBMs, measures which would foster peace and prosperity for the people of Kashmir. He said the dialogue between India and Pakistan was not enough, but '' dialogue within Kashmir is the need of the hour''.

Mr Tapan Bose, general-secretary of the Forum, said successive governments in India had ''overlooked'' the interests of Jammu and Kashmir. ''What they fail to understand is that it is a divided territory, which has separated the people from their near and dear ones for years now.

''It is exactly this human tragedy of separation that should be looked into. A bus service on which some people, who get clearence by the intelligence from both the sides, may go across but it has done very little in mitigating this human tragedy,'' he said.

He said during the devastating earthquake of October 2005 the damage was far greater on the other side of the LoC than on the Indian side. ''People, separated by an invisible territorial line, could not reach out their brethren in their time of need.'' He also accused the government of being ''indifferent'' to its commitments to the survivors of the quake. He said unless the goverment ensures peace and prosperity for the people of Kashmir, the issue would not be resolved.

UNI