Joint India-Pakistan venture for peace in Afghanistan

The suggestion seems quite reasonable but alas, it will remains wishful thinking considering the huge trust deficit between India and Pakistan at present. Two countries which have not been able to sort out their bilateral discords, expecting them to join hands to set someone's else house in order is asking too much. Excerpts from Prem Shankar Ja's article in Hindustan Times:


The only constructive course left open to Pakistan is to somehow rediscover the road to peace that the US and Nato have lost. This will involve getting them to declare a cease-fire, and brokering talks between the Karzai government and the Taliban. That can only happen if Nato and the US are prepared to accept that their present goal is unattainable. As New Delhi has found out in Kashmir, there are no economic remedies for political problems once blood has begun to flow. But Musharraf’s government is too heavily compromised by its past ambivalence towards Islamist militancy and jehad, to command the necessary credibility in Western eyes. It is also regarded with deep suspicion by Kabul. It cannot, therefore, bear this burden alone.

The only alternative — indeed, possibly the only way to restore lasting peace in Afghanistan — is for Pakistan and India to work together. India has almost as vital a stake in preventing the disintegration or Talibanisation of Pakistan as its own people do. It also has the necessary credibility both in Kabul and the Western capitals, and with the erstwhile Northern Alliance to complement Pakistan’s clout with the Pashtuns and the Taliban. And together they can offer Nato and the US an honourable way out of Afghanistan.

But India and Pakistan will only be able to do so if they cease to be mired in the past. They have to shed the inherited burden of distrust and learn to work with each other. The rise of global terrorism, the Bush national security doctrine, and the destruction of the Westphalian international order has given us ample reason to do so.