India-Pakistan negotiations: "Talks about talks"

Mehlaqa Samdani

As expected, no major breakthrough occurred as Pakistan and India concluded foreign-secretary level talks in New Delhi on Thursday. No joint statement was issued and there was "no mention of a second meeting".  Given the divergence in the two countries' priorities and interests, significant progress on major bilateral issues is unlikely in the near term and it will fall to civil society activists on both sides of the border to pressure their respective governments on Kashmir and terrorism.

Since India offered to resume talks with Pakistan last month, it maintained that terrorism emanating from Pakistan will remain the central focus of talks.  Pakistan, on the other hand, had called for a broader agenda where a range of issues including Kashmir and water are discussed. 

Both sides have valid concerns and fears.  On February 13th, a terrorist attack on a bakery in Pune, India, killed eleven people and injured dozens others, "once again (bringing) into focus the role and nexus of indigenous terror groups and sleeper cells in orchestrating militant strikes" in the country.  While local groups such as the Indian Mujahideen (IM) are suspected, Indian authorities are also "pursuing what has been dubbed the "Karachi project", involving Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)-IM groups that worked with American jihadi Headley, who has confessed to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation of having conducted several reconnaissance trips to potential targets in Pune and other cities."

Soon after the attack India rejected Pakistan's calls for the resumption of the 'composite dialogue'.

Pakistan has its own apprehensions regarding the water issue and Kashmir.  Since the partition of the sub-continent in 1947, Pakistan has expressed concern over India trying to "exercise control over the water flow of Pakistan's  rivers...by the building of dams...and by the external control of...three of the rivers (that) flow into Pakistan through the Indian portion of Jammu & Kashmir".  The most controversial of these dams is the Baglihar dam (being) built by India on the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir", which according to Pakistan will "deprive Pakistan of 321,000 acres’ feet of water during the agricultural season, greatly affecting wheat production in the Punjab province and leading to crop failures". In addition, some believe "that the dam will adversely affect 13 million acres of irrigated land around the Chenab and Ravi rivers, forcing Pakistani farmers to change crops, and in the face of starvation, (deepen) Pakistan’s dependence on food imports"

Under the Indus Basin Water Treaty signed by the two countries in 1960, there is an "elaborate dispute resolution mechanism" to settle water conflicts between the two countries. This has allowed talks surrounding water to continue despite the suspension of dialogue on other issues between India and
Pakistan over the past fourteen months. Two weeks before the scheduled foreign secretary talks, Indian and Pakistani Indus Commissioners met in Lahore to develop a “roadmap for resolving water disputes” and agreed to hold further meetings "over the next six months". 

Kashmir, in the meantime, continues to 'simmer' with increased cross-border skirmishes and stepped-up violence between Kashmiri demonstrators and Indian security forces.  Earlier this month, violent protests erupted against Indian rule after the "the deaths of two teenage boys (protestors said) were killed by police and government forces"

As a result dozens of people were rounded up and several separatist leaders placed under house arrest.

Given the deadlock at the government level, Pakistani and Indian civil society activists have a critical role to play. There is a need to coordinate their efforts and step up pressure viz. a viz. their respective governments on issues such as Kashmir and terrorism. For instance, Indian human rights groups must work together to highlight Indian government atrocities in the Vale of Kashmir. Late last year an Indian human rights group documented mass graves in Kashmir with remains of more than 2600 bodies found in them. The group also reported the disappearances of 8,000 people and the deaths of "68,000 people,
mostly civilians...in the 20-year conflict."

Similarly, as was done in the immediate aftermath of the Mumbai massacre, Pakistani activists should once again mobilize and hold their government accountable for failure to act against militant organizations as well as investigate those implicated in the Mumbai massacre. When the Pakistani government denied that Ajmal Kasab (the lone surviving gunmen) belonged to Pakistan, some Pakistani journalists travelled to Faridkot, a village in Punjab where Indian authorities claimed he was from and revealed that Kasab was indeed a native of the area, hence forcing the government to admit his nationality.

There is also need for Pakistani activists to actively take up the Kashmir cause so as to wrest it away from militant organizations who for far too long have hijacked it.  Outfits such as Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and others find popular acceptance when they call for the self-determination of the Kashmiri people.  Even when they disapprove of their violent tactics, Pakistanis have often found it difficult to condemn LeT and others because they feel this would be tantamount to a betrayal of the Kashmiri people.  It is therefore essential for Pakistani civil society groups to more vocally and peacefully support the Kashmiri right of self-determination and thus take away the raison d'etre of these militant groups. 

Flickr photo by Dharmesh used under a Creative Commons license