Shahid Rashid Rather
India and Pakistan are the two major neighbouring nations of the subcontinent. Their relations are based more on hatred and hostility than on meaningful cooperation beacuse a number of problems arose from the partition. The problems like Kashmir dispute, boundary problem, problem of migration and problem of state assets etc. They have fought three major wars( 1947, 1965, 1971) and one undeclared war of ( 1999). They are actually the two Asian heavyweights of Southern part of Asia for obvious reasons. In the mean time situation at the line of actual control( LOC) is extremely escalating for numerous reasons. People of both the countries are living in state of worry. They don’t know what will happen at any anytime. Is India and Pakistan going to engage in a war? Has there been an environment where it can reach to any extent in very less period of time? Well, all this is quite contentious, and a debate is an essence in the present time. But on a negotiation table. War is never a solution to any problem prevailing in the contemporary world. It is a horrible thing. Even people of the both the two countries are not psychologically ready for a war excluding the people who are shouting in their cozy rooms and stating ” Tit for Tat”. Yes there are such people in both the countries. They just need to enhance their TRP. In India emotions are very high afterwards the dastard attack that took place in the Southern part of Kashmir exactly Pulwama. What will happen if India and Pakistan will test themselves in the battle field? It is absolutely unprecedented. We can’t even imagine this. Both the countries are nuclear countries. As per the experts if in any case there is nuclear war between the two countries it will influence the 80 percent of the whole world population. Truly, war is not a way forward. Perchance, we may differ in anything. But that does not mean you should create an environment of fear and that will lost precious lives from both the sides. So those people who are blatantly advocating for war should shut their mouths up. We know they are not going to be affected by this in any manner.
There have been numerous attempts to improve the relationship- notably, the Shimla Summit, Tashkent agreement, Agra Summit. Ironically all these initiatives have taken place between them only when they tried to overcome each other by harder means. It does not matter which of the side won the last laugh. If, you are too desperate to know ask about this to those people who have lost everything in tgese wars, indeed they will be the better ones to let you know the dark side of all this. There are other ways also by which they can improve their relations like Political basis, Economic basis, Cultural and Acedmic basis, and Sports basis. All this they seem difficult. But this isn’t impossible for them to achieve since they have so many things in common ever since the partition.
They may improve their relations for a peaceful tomorrow. But what about the root cause of all the problems- Kashmir? Are they going to solve Kashmir issue once for all? Firstly, are they in such a way to solve this bedrock of all the problems? The Prime minister of Pakistan is ready for dialogue with India. Similarly the external minister has said, that ready for de-escalating the problem. It is better time for both the countries to end this strained relationship. And people of Kashmir should get some respite. If, they are not going to sit in a table to solve Kashmir issue. Then i am sorry to say this way of engaging is meaningless. People of Kashmir don’t want war, all they want is resolution of the Kashmir issue, and for that Indo-Pak dialogue is really need of an hour. This open dialogue must ensure all the issues are addressed with Kashmir being the core aspect of any future happening.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are his own)
