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| Image: Flickr User - MEAphotogallery |
By Ashok Sajjanhar
Bilateral relations are the most formidable challenge facing the Modi government.
Dealing with Pakistan is one of the most formidable challenges that has confronted Indian administrations over the last 30 years. For the governments led by both Atal Behari Vajpayee and his successor Manmohan Singh, relations with Pakistan were the most insoluble conundrum they encountered.
It was expected that the current National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Narendra Modi would employ a more muscular strategy in its relations with Pakistan. While in opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which leads the NDA, always insisted that terror and talks cannot go together.
The participation of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May 2014 allowed for some cautious optimism. However, it did not take long for relations to come crashing down. Foreign secretary-level talks scheduled for August that year were called off at the last moment because of a meeting between Hurriyat leaders and Pakistan’s high commissioner in Delhi.
Since then it has been a rollercoaster ride for the two countries. A meeting in the middle of last year between Modi and Sharif in Ufa, Russia was productive but the backlash was so strong that a planned meeting of the two countries’ national security advisors (NSAs) could not go ahead. A short interaction between Modi and Sharif in Paris led to hurriedly arranged parleys between the NSAs and foreign secretaries in Bangkok on December 6, 2015. This paved the way for a visit by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Islamabad to take part in the Heart of Asia Conference on Afghanistan. At a meeting with Sharif and Swaraj’s Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz it was decided to launch a ‘‘comprehensive bilateral dialogue’’ between the two countries.
Read the full story at The Diplomat