Hurriyat Hometruths

The India-Pakistan national security advisor level talks slated for next week is fast being over-shadowed by the discomfort in South Block over the All Party Hurriyat Conference leaders'—widely seen in India as representatives of Kashmiri separatism—presence in the capital.

The Pakistani high commissioner Abdul Basit has invited them for a round of discussions with the Pakistani NSA, Shartaz Aziz, before he goes into talks with his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval.

India which had called off a scheduled foreign secretary level talks between the two sides last year because of a similar meeting Basit had called in Delhi with the Hurriyat leaders has described the latest Pakistani move as an attempt to scuttle the NSA talks.

But the Indian charge notwithstanding, at no point did Pakistan assure the Indian leadership that it would desist from talking to the Hurriyat leaders, especially before a crucial round of talks between the two countries. In fact,
??
Pakistan has all along shown consistency in its stand. If there has been inconsistency and course correction over the last one year, it has come from India.

PM Narendra Modi broke new ground in May 2014 when he invited Pakistani PM, Nawaz Sharif and other South Asian leaders to his inaugural ceremony. But despite rising hope in the two countries on a renewed attempt to sustain the dialogue process, it was India that called off the talks because of Basit's decision to meet the Hurriyat leaders.
? ?
India decided to renew the dialogue after a meeting between the two Prime Ministers in Russia's Ufa in July this year. The scheduled NSA level dialogue is part of that agreement.

However, throughout this entire period, Pakistan has remained consistent. It has neither expressed its desire to stay away from talks with India nor gave any indication that before future talks between the two sides it will not have prior consultations with the Hurriyat. So whatever else Pakistan may be blamed of, it cannot be accused of inconsistency.

Irrespective of whether India acknowledges it or not, it knows that Pakistan will not be able to hold any dialogue with it unless it keeps the Hurriyat in the loop. The practice of holding meetings with the Kashmiri separatists was accepted by India, and it is now extremely difficult for either side to break away from it.

From Pakistan's point of view no meaningful dialogue with India can take place by ignoring the Kashmir issue. To desist from a meeting with the Hurriyat before a crucial meeting with the Indians in Delhi will be interpreted by hardliners in Pakistan as an attempt to dilute the "core issue" of Kashmir.

Additionally, it has become extremely crucial for Pakistan to bring back the issue of Kashmir to the centre stage of India-Pakistan dialogue now. This is the 70th anniversary of the UN General Assembly and the Pakistani leadership is keen to bring the unresolved Kashmir issue in the speech of its Prime Minister when he addresses the General Assembly in New York in September this year. This becomes as important strategy for Pakistan to divert attention from what it feels will be India's attempt to push for an expansion of the UN Security Council in which Delhi wants to get in as a permanent member.

The terrorist attacks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur are all part of the Pakistani design to unsettle India and bring back the focus on Kashmir.
? ?
If the Indian leadership has shown maturity to come to the decision that it needs to engage with Pakistan to normalise relations between the two neighbou?rs, it will have to overlook the Hurriyat's presence in the periphery of the dialogue process.

However, the Modi administration which had taken a moral high ground last year while calling off the talks, now finds itself in a spot. It knows the concern among the international players will be high if the two estranged nuclear neighbours continue to stay away from the talks table. The decision to return to talks with Pakistan stems from that assessment.

But in an attempt to paper over its own inconsistency in dealing with Pakistan, it is now trying to show the Hurriyat's presence as a Pakistan attempt to scuttle the talks. However, its own incoherent policy is now coming back to put India in an embarrassing position.

Though it may be premature to judge the outcome of the NSA dialogue—which many feel is likely to end up in series of dossiers being exchanges between the two sides followed with charges and counter charges of abetting and supporting cross-border-terrorism—before soon India may have to broaden its dialogue with Pakistan.

Stressing on the need to focus only on the issue of terrorism may be good point to sell to the domestic audience. But a sustained dialogue, insulated from domestic pressure, is the only hope of improving India-Pakistan relations.