Despite India's protests, Pakistan envoy meets Kashmir separatists - Livemint

Basit’s meetings came a day after India called off the foreign secretary-level talks scheduled for 25 August in Islamabad to register a strong protest against the envoy engaging with Kashmir separatists. Photo: AFP

New Delhi: The Pakistan high commission in New Delhi held discussions with leaders of Kashmiri separatist factions on Tuesday, ignoring protests by India, which cancelled planned talks between their foreign secretaries a day earlier in a show of displeasure.

Pakistan’s high commissioner Abdul Basit met Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mohammed Yasin Malik and was expected to meet Mirwaiz Umer Farooq as the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Tasnim Aslam reacted strongly to India’s move, saying Pakistan was “not subservient” to New Delhi and was a “legitimate stakeholder” in the Kashmir dispute.

Basit’s meetings came a day after India abruptly called off the foreign secretary-level talks scheduled for 25 August in Islamabad to register a strong protest against Basit engaging with Kashmiri separatists.

The thinking in the Indian government was that Pakistan had been given a choice to engage with either India or the separatists; since Pakistan chose the latter, India decided there was no point in going ahead with the meeting between officials. India’s view is that Kashmir is an issue to be settled bilaterally between India and Pakistan and that separatists do not have a seat at the table. India says it will hold a dialogue with the Kashmiris on its own because Kashmir is an integral part of India.

The meeting slated between India’s Sujatha Singh and Pakistan’s Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry had been billed as talks about talks. They were to be the first face-to-face talks between the foreign secretaries in almost two years and followed an innovative effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve ties with India’s neighbours.

People familiar with India’s engagement with Pakistan said that Basit’s gesture to invite Kashmiri separatists for discussions before the visit of an Indian foreign secretary or foreign minister to Pakistan was unheard of.

“Why did this change this time?” said one of the people cited above, pointing to a departure from established practice. The thinking in New Delhi is that there could be two possible explanations why Pakistan had changed its position. The first is that Basit made a mistake. The second, it was a deliberate move. In either case, the Pakistan army, which has never favoured good relations between India and Pakistan, could be behind the move.

The Pakistan government headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the powerful military have in recent months been at loggerheads over the prosecution of former army chief and Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf for treason, according to a Reuters report. Sharif is also struggling to overcome power shortages, high unemployment and spiralling crime.

“India always deals with whichever government is in power. India has been making efforts to engage Pakistan and we have been preparing for it,” said one of the people cited above when asked if India had called off the talks because it was unsure of Sharif surviving the twin political challenges posed by Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf’s Imran Khan and Canada-based activist cleric Tahir ul-Qadri who were demanding his resignation.

Vivek Katju, former joint secretary in charge of Pakistan in the Indian foreign ministry, welcomed the tough line taken by Modi, noting that India had previously taken a more relaxed view of meetings between the Pakistan government and Kashmiri separatists although these were an exception to normal diplomatic practice. Modi’s government “has applied a fully needed and well justified corrective. I only hope that the present position will be sustained”, he said.

Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal said Basit’s move to meet with Kashmiri separatists—clearly against the wishes of the Indian government—was grounds enough to expel him. However, the Indian foreign ministry said there was no such thinking in the ministry currently.

Meanwhile, the US State Department said India’s decision to call off the talks was “unfortunate”. In comments during the daily press briefing in Washington on Tuesday, Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson of the US State Department, said the US continued to support efforts at peace between the two South Asian countries, who have fought three of their four wars since 1947 over Kashmir. Harf said the US was of the view that the dispute was something India and Pakistan should resolve bilaterally. “Our policy on Kashmir hasn’t changed. We continue to believe that the pace and the scope and character of any discussions on Kashmir are for India and Pakistan to determine between them. That hasn’t changed, and that, I think, will remain our position going forward,” she said.

Senior Congress leader and former commerce minister Anand Sharma said, “There has to be a consistent and coherent policy in engaging with Pakistan... the country is in the dark and the government’s functioning is opaque.”

“The question is why they started it in the first place. They have followed an opaque and incoherent foreign policy towards Pakistan,” he added.

Anuja and AFP contributed to this report