Pak-India Foreign Secretaries’ Meeting

Does the Mohali Spirit Continue to Influence?
Khadim Hussain
June 2011
The joint statement of Pak-India Foreign Secretaries’ meeting held in Islamabad on June 23—24, 2011, to discuss, ‘peace and security, Kashmir and friendly relations’ comes at a time when several important events are taking place in the region and around the globe. The joint statement very candidly identifies, ‘that people of the two countries are at the heart of the relationship and that humanitarian issues should be accorded priority and treated with sensitivities’.
It is important to note that the history of dialogue between Pakistan and India has all along been mired in mistrust and bore very little if any purposeful result. The establishments of the two nuclear states of South Asia have so far succeeded to construct and perpetuate a discourse of geo-politics that mostly attempted to find conflicting interests in their relations rather than adopting a paradigm that makes effort to find common interests for peaceful co-existence and mutual benefits. The consequences of these hostile postures adopted by both Pakistan and India have all alone not only inflicted immeasurable losses on the people and societies of both countries but have also cast a shadow of doom and destruction on the states of the region. Three inter-related dynamics have been instrumental in bringing the two nuclear states of Pakistan and India on the verge of wars in their 64 years of existence as sovereign nation states.
First, a discourse of discord between the two states was constructed right in the outset of their inception as independent countries. The components of the discourse of discord include among others the historical narrative of creating symbols that generated territorial and existential insecurity in the minds of Pakistani and Indian masses. Instead of an interpretation of history that is objective and realistic, the two states perpetuated an interpretation that leads only and only to wars.
Glorification of war heroes against the Indian protagonists and constructing India and Indianism as dialectically opposed to a Muslim identity in the Pakistani textbooks, media discourse, and in the discourses perpetuated by the rightist conservative political parties in Pakistan have all along created a feeling of disgust and abhorrence in both official and non-official circles of Pakistan towards India. In the process of constructing a history of discord, the Pakistani establishment went to the extent that isolates the state from the Ghandara civilization so as to create an artificial identity separate from the Indian roots. The corresponding discourse perpetuated by Indian media that smacks of arrogance and hegemony with respect to Pakistan has further exacerbated the situation between India and Pakistan during all these years.
Second, the establishments of both the countries have so far ignored the functional and futuristic aspects of geo-strategic engagement by making efforts to deny space to each other in the region and the world at large. In a lay-man parlance, Pakistan is a friend of China because it is an enemy of India. The state establishment of Pakistan has thus created dream like fantasies with respect to its bilateral relations with China that has no parallel in history of International Relations. On the other hand, India is a friend of Afghanistan because Pakistan has not been getting along well with the successive Afghan governments. The hawkish elements of the establishments of both the countries have developed constituencies of conflict in their respective countries to carry forward their agenda of vested interest.
The subjective elements of this dynamic have compelled both Pakistan and India to engage in an arms race at the peril of human security of the masses of both the states. Both countries have performed abysmally on the Human Development Indicators mainly because of their perpetual conflict. Both countries have so far created a large section of disgruntled population that is fed up with the paradigm of ‘super patriotism’. Masses of both the countries are forced to live a life of hopelessness and helplessness.

Third, both the countries have created administrative and strategic mechanisms that have so far successfully aborted attempts to engage in a meaningful dialogue to resolve issues that have remained irritants in the development of positive bilateral relations between the two neighboring states. The mechanisms of restrictive measures are easily justified by the establishments due the favourable constituencies of discord created over the past six decades in both the countries. There have been efforts to engage in dialogue in the past just to be derailed due to one excuse or the other. 
The restrictive administrative regimes created by both the states have effectively isolated professionals, academia, experts, media persons and government officials belonging to the two neighboring states from each other. This phenomenon further widened gulf between the people and the governments of both the countries. This is the reason that moving towards policy making on the outstanding issues and implementation of the agreed upon Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) for the civilian leaderships of both the countries have become herculean tasks.
Viewed in this context, the Mohali event of the meeting between the Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousuf Raza Gilani and the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh in May 2011 seems to be a historic event in which, ‘the two leaders had discussion on wide-ranging issues of relevance for both countries. Just as we spoke of the Thimpu spirit, it will be appropriate to suggest that there was a Mohali spirit this time that can only be described as extremely positive’ according to Ms. Nirupama Rao, the Foreign Secretary of India. The spirit of Mohali envisages an era of continued and consisted ‘uninterrupted and uninterruptible’ dialogue on the issues of relevance for both the countries. These include both outstanding issues of Kashmir, terreorism, Sir Kreek and Siacheen and the issues related to CBMs.
The consequent meetings of the interior, commerce, water and defense officials of both the countries in the first quarter of this year anticipate positive omen for the spirit of Mohali to grow, accelerate and become a potent factor in Pak India relations. The twelve point joint statement of the meeting on June 23—24, 2011 indicates the resolve of the civilian leadership of both the countries to continue dialogue on ‘Peace and Security, including CBMs, were discussed in a comprehensive manner. Both sides emphasized the importance of constructive dialogue to promote mutual understanding’.
The meeting further ‘noted the ongoing implementation of various Nuclear and Conventional CBMs. They also decided to convene separate Expert level meetings on Nuclear and Conventional CBMs to discuss implementation and strengthening of existing arrangements and to consider additional measures, which are mutually acceptable, to build trust and confidence and promote peace and security. The dates for the Expert level meetings will be determined through diplomatic channels’. It is pertinent to note that Foreign Secretaries of both the neighboring states, ‘noted that both countries recognize that terrorism poses a continuing threat to peace and security and they reiterated the firm and undiluted commitment of the two countries to fight and eliminate this scourge in all its forms and manifestations. They agreed on the need to strengthen cooperation on counter-terrorism’.
It is also heartening to observe that, ‘The Foreign Secretaries exchanged views on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir and agreed to continue discussions in a purposeful and forward looking manner with the view to finding a peaceful solution by narrowing divergences and building convergences’. This seems to be a substantial paradigm shift repacing the previous outdated doctrines of bilateral relationship between the two neighboring states.
The Foreign Secretaries’ meeting seems to be a gradual ascending of the two countries beyond their subjective narratives in consonance with the Mohali spirit but at the same time the need of a counter-narrative of Peace and Human Security has to be constructed to achieve the goal of two neighboring states living with the zeitgeist of regional cooperation and peaceful co-existence.
Besides friendly exchange of academia, media persons, artists, parliamentarians and professionals of the two countries, it is imperative that a discourse of peaceful regional co-existence and consideration for human security is constructed by the civil society and electronic media of both the countries. For this to happen, both the Indian and Pakistani establishments have to discard the outdated doctrines of looking for the issues of conflict rather than of common interests in bilateral relations. The following measures need to be taken on long and short term bases to construct a narrative of peace.
First and foremost, common grounds in history and diverse cultures of both the states and societies of both the countries need to be identified and made parts and parcel of the social sciences courses in the educational institutions of both the countries. This can easily be done through the establishment of Gandhi chairs in the Pakistani prominent universities and Jinnah, Bhutto and Baacha Khan Chairs at the Indian universities. The simple measures that need to be taken are to facilitate Memoranda of Understanding between Indian and Pakistani universities which should have the mandate of revising courses of Social Sciences that are taught at the educational institutions of both India and Pakistan.
Second, doing away with all the restrictive administrative mechanisms at the bureaucratic levels to facilitate implementation of the CBMs is of utmost importance if the civilian leaderships of both the countries are honest in their resolve.
Third, there must be a genuine resolve by the civilian leaderships of both the countries that all types of communication channels are kept open in both normal and crisis situations.
(The writer is a researcher analyst. kahdimhussain@hotmail.com )