Sources said India can neither ignore Pakistan's conduct nor afford a confrontation with the nuclear-powered neighbour.
Despite a tough talk by home minister P Chidambaram and India saying its stand on Pakistan being a safe haven for terrorists has been vindicated with Osama bin Laden’s killing, there is going to be no change or impact on ongoing Indo-Pak talks.
Even though India would approach the talks with renewed pressure on Pakistan to dismantle terror camps on its soil, senior government officials said the talks scheduled will not be disturbed and they will continue as per plan culminating in foreign secretary and foreign minister level talks in June.
In May, talks on three important issues — Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project (water resources secretary), Sir Creek (surveyor general) and Siachen (defence secretary) - are to take place followed by a wrap up by the Foreign Secretaries’ on Kashmir and Confidence Building Measures in June.
However, Chidambaram is already talking tough since Monday’s development in Pakistan. Chidambaram told a TV channel on Tuesday that when world’s most dreaded terrorist Laden could be found “deep inside” Pakistan, why India should accept Pakistan’s argument that they do not know about India’s most wanted men — Hafiz Sayeed and Dawood Ibrahim. India believes that the two are hiding in Pakistan.
Even former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarthy told DNA that India should be talking tough with its neighbour in the changed circumstances. But government sources said that India can neither ignore Pakistan’s conduct nor afford a confrontation with nuclear-powered Pakistan. Hence, the only option is to engage the “tortuous and tough neighbour” in talks. “We are mindful of the fact that we are dealing with a difficult neighbour and a weak civilian government...But we have no choice but to talk to them,” said an official.
Officials said that since India has initiated resumption of talks and there is an impression in the political leadership in Pakistan that PM Manmohan Singh is sincere in his efforts to improve bilateral relations and reduce trust deficit, it would not want to break the positive perception.
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