Inviting Benazir Bhutto?

By C. Raja Mohan

IT IS not very often that you get to see generals from rival armies sharing a few quiet moments over lunch. But if you were at a popular restaurant in the Capital's India Habitat Centre a couple of days ago that precisely is what you would have noticed. We did not know what Gen. Jehangir Karamat, former Army Chief of Pakistan, had to say to Gen. V. P. Malik who recently retired as the top gun of the Indian Army. What they talked about may be less important than the fact that they were talking.

By all accounts, the soft-spoken Gen. Karamat who was here to attend an international conference, has made a very good impression on his Indian interlocutors. It is not that the Indians heard any thing dramatic or unexpected from someone in Pakistan who had a lot to do with policy- making at the highest level in recent years. That he chose to come and engage the Indian foreign policy establishment is significant in itself.

It was indeed nice to see Gen. Karamat joining New Delhi's seminar circuit. It is perhaps only a matter of time before Gen. Malik addresses a seminar in Islamabad or Lahore. But it would be even nicer to see Ms. Benazir Bhutto, exiled leader of Pakistan, visiting 10 Janpath to have a conversation with Ms. Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. Much like the Generals who had a lot to think together about, Ms. Bhutto and Ms. Gandhi will have many issues to deliberate upon. Ms. Bhutto could recall her visit to the Indian capital nearly three decades ago as a young adolescent, when her father came here to negotiate peace with Indira Gandhi. She could reflect on her valiant attempts to achieve a political breakthrough with Rajiv Gandhi when the two young leaders were at the helm in the late 1980s. Ms. Bhutto can certainly recall the many missed opportunities for peace on the subcontinent; and may be she has some ideas on how to move forward now.

To be sure, there will be some outrage in Islamabad and deep discomfort in South Block at the very idea of having Ms. Bhutto visit India and engage the Indian leadership across the political spectrum. That she is persona non grata with the current military regime in Islamabad and is not in a position to return to Pakistan any time soon is indeed a fact no one can ignore. And it is equally true that the Government of India should be doing business with whoever is in power in Pakistan. All indications are that New Delhi is getting ready to engage Gen.Pervez Musharraf, if and when he can show he has the power to rein in the `jehadi' forces fomenting terrorism in India. New Delhi is no longer shunning the military regime in Islamabad. But peace on the subcontinent is too important to be left to the BJP-led Government in India and the Army in Pakistan. Without a broader engagement between the two civil societies on war and truce as well as development and good governance, there will be no lasting peace and cooperation between the two nations. To an extent that has already begun to happen. Thanks to the generous support from American and European foundations which are worried about a nuclear flashpoint on the subcontinent, a Track-II process has come into being between India and Pakistan over the last decade. And Indian philanthropists and corporates too are beginning fund some of these meetings now. There is not a month in which a delegation of retired diplomats, generals from either Pakistan or India is not travelling across the border to debate issues ranging from nuclear confidence-building measures to Kashmir.

This engagement between the two societies has often gone beyond Track-II, which is generally indistinguishable from the security establishments on both sides. Activists for a peace process that looks beyond the entrenched views of the state on either side of the border have established a Track-III process that is very, very different from Track-II. Women's groups, non-governmental organisations and anti-nuclear campaigns from both countries have begun to meet more frequently. Scientists, journalists, doctors are now among the professionals who talk to each other quite often in each other's capitals and not just in third countries.

Track-II and Track-III have been all for the good. But the results have not been good enough. Despite the best intentions, the unending meetings of Track-II have not been able to sufficiently influence the policy of either country and force the pace of the dialogue between the two nations. For there has been one big missing link in the dialogue between the two societies. The political establishments in the two countries have not been part of the process. There was one brief attempt a couple of years ago to bring the parliamentarians on both sides to discuss peace. Thanks to Kargil and the military coup in Pakistan which put the national legislature there in a limbo, the promising initiative to knock together the heads of politicians on both sides has not taken off.

As the two Governments grope towards a new peace process in Kashmir, it is absolutely important that the initiative to bring political leaders together is revived. Unless the political leaders on both sides see the imperative of peace on the subcontinent and are willing to go beyond the traditional rhetoric there will be no real movement in the Indo- Pakistan dialogue. This is also one of the major lessons to be learnt from the fiasco of the Lahore process. In India the Opposition Congress party was not impressed with the hurried attempt by Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee to structure peace, and in Pakistan those opposed to the process managed to scuttle it very quickly. Will it be unreasonable to assume that this time too political resistance to peace on either side could derail the fledgling efforts to initiative a productive dialogue?

A third reason for substantive exchanges between the political leaders on both sides is that since Partition the two societies have evolved in different directions. It is no longer possible to structure policies towards the other purely on the basis of instinct or the assumed familiarity between the two elites. The post-Partition leaders in India and Pakistan know less and less about the political dynamic on the other side. This unhealthy situation can only be remedied through more frequent contacts between political parties and leaders on both sides.

As the bigger and more self-confident nation, the initiative for greater political dialogue outside the Government must come from India. There is a good case for the Congress, or for anyone else, to invite Ms. Benazir Bhutto to India and interact with the national leaders across the political spectrum. The former Pakistan Prime Minister could engage the intelligentsia, travel across the country and find for herself where India is headed. The Congress or the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation do not require the permission of the Government to take the initiative. One cannot see how the Government of India can object to it either.

In opening up to a broader interaction with the Pakistani political class, there is no reason why India should limit itself to any one particular party or leader on the other side. No one can stop the Indian communists from inviting trade union leaders and agrarian activists from across Pakistan. There is no shortage of political formations in India which can invite leaders from political parties in Pakistan who are willing to look at this nation without the prejudices that have been reinforced over the decades.

India and Pakistan have been condemned by geography to live together. Having acquired nuclear weapons, they must now find a way ensure peaceful coexistence if not cooperation. And that cannot happen without a dialogue between the two political establishments. And what better way is there to start than with an invitation to Ms. Benazir Bhutto?

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