April 13 , 2012
Zardari’s One-Day Visit to India
Ostensibly, the one-day visit on April 8 of President Zardari to India was merely for offering his obeisance at the shrine of a 12 th century Sufi-saint buried at Ajmer in the Rajisthan area of India. But, a luncheon in New Delhi for him and his 40-member team by the Prime Minister of India has added political significance to it and opened the door for speculation given the measures recently taken by the two perennial rivals to build mutually beneficial trade and other relations.
Asif Ali Zardari has been a consistent advocate of close and friendly relations between the two neighbors ever since he became the President in September 2008. He has thus been out of sync with the powerful army of his country that has waged three major wars with India and maintains an anti-India stance for its very existence. It has also staged four coups to assume the reins of power and administer the country for half the length of its very existence.
Simmering tensions between the civilian government and an army trying now to oust that government indirectly, through a pliant judiciary, had marked the political environment in the country over the past several months. For Zardari to manage a visit to India in such a political milieu is a noticeable feat.
In an April 5 press briefing, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman clarified that the President “will discuss all the issues with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to promote intra-regional peace and prosperity… We are looking forward for constructive engagement between the two leaders in New Delhi.” The meeting will therefore not be just a social engagement but a working event. Also, there is a possibility of a one-on-one meeting between the two leaders. The more such contacts, the less will be the points of misunderstanding between the two countries.
The violence and communal riots that attended the partition of India, three major wars and numerous border clashes have created a strong trust deficit between them. The leaders of both will have to keep taking measures to remove misunderstandings and to build an aura of trust and friendly feelings so that the people of both countries, who share numerous social and cultural values, draw closer to each other and lead a happy and prosperous life based on mutual trust and support.
India will have to overcome its chagrin and sentiments of revenge over the 27/11/08 terrorist attacks in Bombay. The United States, which has evidently played a role in paving the way for Zardari’s visit, has announced a $10 m award for information leading to the capture of Hafiz Saeed, head of Jameiatut-Dava, who is believed to have been the mastermind of the Bombay attacks. This US announcement at this point of time appears to have been calculated to support and pacify the Indians while pressuring the Pakistanis to enhance their efforts to eliminate terrorist suspects from their soil. Pakistan finds itself unable to take any action against Saeed, who commands a large following, since the evidence provided by India is not considered sufficiently convincing to arrest him.
It is time that India stopped harping on the Bombay tragedy; for, it is not likely to avail much apart from keeping the relations between the two embittered. That could hardly be the objective of the Indian authorities. In the context of the Zardari visit, both appeared keen on sidelining the long-standing Bombay incident so that it does not adversely affect what is seen as a feel-good visit that seeks to reinforce positive trends in bilateral ties after they resumed the peace process in February last year.
The developing scenario in Afghanistan, particularly the shape of things to come after the withdrawal of US and NATO forces in the next two years, is impacting the relations between India and Pakistan with the US pursuing its own agenda. The US wants to withdraw forces after ensuing stability in Afghanistan; hence, its endeavors to bring the two regional powers together. The US has had a role, according to a section of world media, in bringing about the Zardari visit.
India has already established several footholds in Afghanistan and views that country as part of its area of economic influence. An Indian consortium, for instance, has won an 11-billion dollar Hajigak project in Afghanistan to mine iron ore, and another Indian group is setting up a steel plant in that country. It wants to transport the iron ore to its plants in India via Pakistan. For which it needs stability in the region. Indian think tanks maintain that ‘the two countries could be equal stakeholders in stabilizing Afghanistan rather than continue to linger in two corners far apart, suspiciously viewing each other’s intentions’.
Pakistan’s military establishment, on the other hand, views Indian moves in Afghanistan as calculated to encircle their territory and establish Indian hegemony in the region. The US policy makers, it suspects, are also promoting such a scenario to have an Indian counter to China’s designs in the area.
President Zardari and his civilian advisers hold on the other hand that a bright and prosperous future of Pakistan lies not in belligerency but is peace and cooperation with India; three major wars have availed little for Pakistan.
The significance of Zardari’s one-day visit to India lies in building up an atmosphere of warmth conducive to a mutually beneficial visit of PM Manmohan Sing to Pakistan in the near future. Some steps have already been taken to negate the earlier antagonistic postures . Pakistan has announced the grant of Most Favored Nation status to India by the end of next December. India has withdrawn its opposition to a European Union concessional trade package for Pakistan, despite the fact that it hurt Indian textile industry.
Zardari’s visit, in short, may turn out to be the harbinger of stabilizing ties and peace in the region.
arifsyedhussaini@Gmail.com
