The first few months
of 2015 offered a glimmer of hope in the long, twisted history of the
India-Pakistan rivalry. On February 11, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Pakistani
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to wish Pakistan luck in the cricket World Cup, and
to offer to send his new Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Islamabad
for talks. But just two months later, the Lahore High Court’s approval of
Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi’s release from prison on April 10 thoroughly tanked any
near-term prospects for improved relations between the two countries. Lakhvi is
the 55-year-old operational head of the Kashmir-focused Islamic militant groupLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),
and alleged mastermind of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
The court’s decision
has left Indian leaders fuming and
has drawn criticismfrom
the U.S. government. A deterioration in Pakistan’s relations with either nation
will be detrimental to regional and global security and, in the case of
bilateral India-Pakistan ties, the ultimate stability of both countries. A
recent Atlantic Council report estimates that an expansion in
bilateral trade between India and Pakistan could generate up to $400 billion in
just a few years, while freeing resources currently tied up in bloating defense
spending and improve access to resources like water and electricity. The stakes
in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship are also high, with the Washington supplying
billions of dollars in military and economic aid to Islamabad each year in
hopes of eliciting critical counterterrorism cooperation and the facilitation —
both political and logistical — of NATO’s projected withdrawal from
Afghanistan.
Many Asia
policy-watchers in India and across the world are pointing to the growing
importance of the India-China rivalry. They are inclined to dismiss
the India-Pakistan conflict as a kind of 20th-century relic, with a
dysfunctional and debt-ridden Pakistan continuing to obsess over its neighbor’s
supposed designs on regional hegemony while India has found bigger fish to
fry in economic
development and the larger long-term threat to the east. But
while Pakistan’s preoccupation with perceived Indian meddling in Afghanistan
and elsewhere can indeed verge on the delusional (not
to mention self-destructive),
the friction between these warring sibling countries is still a very real
issue, and one that could quickly escalate — no small hazard when dealing with
two nuclear-armed states.
Modi came into office
in May 2014 with a fairly hardline stance on Pakistan (save a seeming gesture
of goodwill in inviting Sharif to his inauguration), a position that was controversial but
ultimately aligned with a large portion of Indian popular opinion.
Since 2001, much of the Indian national security community has watched in
confusion as the United States tried desperately to forge a “strategic
partnership” with Pakistan in the name of bilateral cooperation on the war in
Afghanistan and counterterrorism, despite numerous, damning indications that
Pakistan was playing a double game by providing support to Afghan Taliban groups.
Modi’s approach, therefore, while not completely entrenched, seemed to embody a
sense of frustration and reflect India’s deep distrust that Pakistan would ever
engage on issues of terrorism and bilateral relations in good faith.
Many Indians were
shocked, therefore, when Modi reached out to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif in February in what appeared to be a retreat from several of India’s
previously set “red lines.” In August 2014, Pakistani leaders met with the
Kashmiri separatist group Hurriyat Conference just days before scheduled
foreign minister-level talks between the two countries. Modi saw this as a snub
in the face of a potential rapproachment, and promptly called off the
meeting. But this time, Modi reached out despite Pakistan’s continued contact
with Hurriyat, including a meeting between
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar
Farooq and the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi, Abdul
Basit, the day before Modi’s call to Sharif.
It was hard, then,
back in February, to resist speculating over the reasons for Modi’s about-turn,
given that his outreach to Sharif came just days after Obama’s visit to India.
The press and observers in both countries widely assumed Obama
had put Modi up to the call, a perception fueled by the White House’s comments before
the visit that Pakistan was a top agenda item. The call angered many in India,
who felt the
move put Modi in an embarrassing and unwise position by simultaneously acceding
to the United States’ behest and capitulating to a dangerous and intransigent
rival. Others insisted nothing
had — or would — change on Pakistan’s end, and remained certain that extending
an olive branch was a fool’s errand.
Even supporters of Modi’s
friendlier stance towards Pakistan were skeptical that such a step would
ultimately lead to any real shifts in existing and deeply rooted antagonisms,
which many perceive,
at least in the case of Pakistan, to be built into the very socio-political
fabric of the country. Ideas about the precise ways in which strains of Islamic
fundamentalism and anti-India sentiment are intertwined and self-reinforcing
across different segments of Pakistani society vary according to the observer
and his or her background or bias (few, if any, analysts of these slippery
issues ever appear to be truly impartial). But in India, if not in Pakistan itself,
it seemed likely that those forces would derail any hopes for reconciliation.
On the Pakistan side,
of course, there also remained deep distrust as
to Modi’s true intentions.
Lakhvi’s release thus came as
disappointing but not entirely unexpected news to many Indians who, again,
expect that certain actors in Pakistan will behave in ways that preclude peace
with India. Pakistani authorities, on the other hand, cited legal
reasons for Lakhvi’s release, claiming there was insufficient evidence to
support his continued detention; much of the evidence in the case is considered
sensitive, and thus hasn’t been made available to the press or public.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office also stated that Indian authorities failed to provide critical assistance and
evidence regarding the Mumbai attacks, making it difficult for Pakistan to
prosecute Lakhvi, a claim disputed by Indian officials
Assessments on the Indian side have, of
course, been far less forgiving. Prime Minister Modi, currently touring Europe,
kept his comments vague but undeniably critical, stating, “All nations should commit that
they will not provide shelter to terrorists but punish them.” The United States and several other nations made similar comments. But the Indian press, government officials,
and even some within
Pakistan itself expressed strong suspicions as to exactly what was behind the
release, and few seemed convinced by Pakistan’s procedural explanation.
The majority pointed to the possibility
that Pakistani security services, by most accounts the most powerful actors in
the country, exerted pressure on or even withheld evidence from the courts to
protect Lakhvi. LeT, Lakhvi’s terrorist outfit, has long been considered an
ally and even beneficiary of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),
making his release appear to confirm Indian claims that Pakistan continues to
pick and choose which terrorist groups to attack and which to protect and foster
as potential foreign policy instruments — in this case against India, primarily
in Kashmir.
While this seems the most likely
scenario, there may be a broader impetus for the security services to undermine
any potential rapprochement with India. Ayesha Siddiqa, an economist and
respected analyst of Pakistani politico-military affairs, and others, have
asserted that the Pakistani military, and its army in particular, has an
incentive to maintain the country’s adversarial stance towards India to
preserve its place as the preeminent and most powerful institution in the
country.
In this argument, the army’s economic
clout and prestige depend on its status as the nation’s savior, and the leeway
given to it by the Pakistani people is largely built on their fear that without
the Army’s protection, India will annihilate them.
In this argument, the
army’s economic clout and prestige depend on its status as the nation’s savior,
and the leeway given to it by the Pakistani people is largely built on their
fear that without the Army’s protection, India will annihilate them.
This is, of course, a controversial
stance, and the reality is likely some combination of these factors, including
an element of the Pakistani government’s answer, namely a bureaucratic or legal
failure to put forth adequate evidence against Lakhvi. Whatever the reason or
combination thereof, however, Lakhvi’s release will undoubtedly serve as
powerful ammunition for those in India who believe that any kind of talks with
Pakistan are not only a waste of time, but potentially dangerous.
Sunshat Sareen, a consultant at the
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi who was critical of
Modi’s “u-turn” on Pakistan before news broke of Lakhvi’s release, undoubtedly
considers his words from late
February to be little less than prescient now: “The past record suggests that
every time India is engaged in a dialogue with Pakistan, there is a spike in
incidents of terrorism. This is partly because talks serve as a buffer to any
possible offensive action that India might contemplate in retaliation. It is so
much easier to call off talks than to take offensive action. Talks create space
for Pakistan to export terrorism.” Releasing Lakhvi is not a terrorist act in
itself, of course, but such a step from Pakistan in the face of a potential
improvement in relations does seem to fit fairly well within Sareen’s
prediction.
The decision on Lakhvi also fuels
India’s argument to the United States that their attempts to engender
cooperation from Pakistan are futile and naive, as Pakistan will not truly
change its stripes unless there is a wholesale change towards leadership that
can keep the military in check. Having recently approved a $952 million sale of
helicopters and missiles to Pakistan, the United States clearly remains
invested in its counterterrorism partnership with Pakistan, an understandable
stance given the need for Pakistan’s cooperation to both successfully withdraw
from Afghanistan and to keep tabs on al Qaeda senior leadership still residing
in the tribal areas. With the release of Lakhvi, however, critics in both India
and the United States are already calling for greater oversight and perhaps even a suspension of U.S.
military aid to Pakistan. It is unlikely that Lakhvi’s release will be enough
to shut down the pipeline of U.S. military assistance, given the importance of
that bilateral relationship. But it certainly tips the scales towards those who
hold Pakistan’s commitment to counterterrorism in doubt. In the case of India,
it will almost certainly preclude any further talks for some time to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment