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| Too premature to expect miracles out of Krishan-Qureshi talks | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, May 11: The two Prime Ministesr,Manmohan Singh,and Yousuf Raza Gilani,have implemented what they had planned when they met in Thimpu(Bhutan) on the sidelines of the recent SAARC meet.The two had suggested to their foreign ministers and foreign secretaries to finalise the schedule for bilateral talks.The two foreign ministers,India's S.M.Krishna, and Pakistan's, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, did not take more than 10 minutes to fix July 15 for the talks.In fact Krishna had been invited by Qureshi when the two picked up the receiver to exchange greetings.
The composite dialogue had been suspended soon after the Mumbai strike by the terrorists in 2008.However,as a result of persistent pleading from Islamabad and mild pressure from Washington Delhi agreed to reopen the channels ot dialogue at foreign secretary level.And the two foreign secretaries, India's, Nirupama Rao and Pakistan's Salman Bashir had a day's session in New Delhi on February 25. As expected nothing concrete emerged out of the meeting except that the two sides conveyed some grievances and difficulties to each other.It had been decided that Nirupama Rao will fly to Islamabad to have a second round of talks with Salman Bashir.However,it was later decided that the two will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meet in New York. Ultimately it was in Thimpu that one more ice cube was broken when Manmohan Singh and Gilani decided to set the stage for the bilateral dialogue by convening a foreign ministry level talks.
Initially it was expected that Qureshi may be asked to visit Delhi for a meeting with his counterpart, Krishna but reports said Qureshi reminded Krishna that after pakistan's foreign secretary Salman bashir had visited Delhi it was the turn of Indian Foreign Minister to visit Islamabad. Since the two sides were keen to hold the dialogue Krishna had no hesitation in accepting Qureshi's invitation. As the dates for the meet has been announced it has removed fears over the timing of the dialogue.There were fears that even after the commitment that the channels of dialogue would be reopened India seemed to be reluctant because Pakistan had not conceded basic demand raised by Delhi for preventing the soil of Pakistan being used for exporting terror to India.But these fears were removed when the dates for the Krishna-Qureshi meet was announced.
Kashmiri separatists were first to feel happy. Senior Hurriyat Conference leader, Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat, said that India and Pakistan have got another chance to evolve a solution that could lead to the settlement of the kashmir issue.He said if again the two sides miss the bus peace will continue to elude the Indian subcontinent. Well his optimism may prove unfounded because there are other issues that await resolution.The two foreign minister may discuss the Kashmir issue but it is unimaginable that a solution to this 63-year old problem could be found in one meeting.Yes,the two sides could hammer out some definite programme for reducing the trust deficit. It will be a major gain as far as confidence building measures are concerned if the two sides agree to honour in letter and spirit the seven-year old border ceasefire and if Islamabad initiates added measures for preventing militants from sneaking into Jammu and Kashmir.If this materialised one could say that Krishan-Qureshi dialogue has been a success.
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