Talks have yielded no results

Satish Chandra
Former deputy national security advisor of India and former high commissioner to Pakistan.

Pakistan has been crossing many red lines for years now. India has sent a strong signal this time by calling off the foreign secretary-level talks and it was much needed. How can we engage with a country that is responsible for terrorism on our soil and is continuously firing on our borders.

Earlier governments in Delhi had no courage to take a step like this. It must be clear to us that Pakistani state is not interested in good relations with India. If there is no sincerity from Pakistan, what is the need to engage in talks. Besides these talks have yielded no results for many years now. And imagine how will Pakistani state react if we start hobnobing with leaders in Balochistan?

Also, India should stop giving red carpet treatment to Hurriyat leaders. We are ourselves responsible to some extent for making Hurriyat relevant. Anyway, dialogue with Hurriyat leaders should be conditional and only within the constitution of India. Till now India has been overly indulgent to Pakistan. We should remain firm as long as Pakistani mindset will not change and it will never change. Even if India gives away Kashmir, the enmity from Pakistan will continue as it wants to disintegrate India.