Unseemly incidents a blot on India-Pak ties

The strongarm tactics adopted by the Pakistani security forces and intelligence agencies to prevent guests attending India’s high commissioner’s iftar party in Islamabad on Saturday is no indication, one way or another, of Pakistan’s likely attitude toward attempting to normalise ties with India after the Narendra Modi government’s return to power with an increased mandate. If anything, as the elections were on in India, Pakistan PM Imran Khan said in an interview to an international news agency that Mr Modi’s re-election as PM was more likely to produce a forward movement in the relationship.

That has come to pass, but when Mr Khan telephoned to congratulate Mr Modi on his win and hoped that a cooperative equation may be brought about, the latter’s response was that this would be feasible when Islamabad took active steps to end anti-India terrorism emanating from its soil. The ball, really speaking, may then be deemed to be in Mr Khan’s court. It will, therefore, be interesting to see how the Pakistan PM negotiates with his own Army — the pre-eminent factor in determining Islamabad’s ties with New Delhi — to arrive at a stable relationship with this country. The Indian high commissioner’s iftar party incident was highly regrettable and “disappointing”, to use our high commission’s own expression. Indeed, as high commissioner Ajay Bisaria noted, it was against civilised norms and the etiquette and conventions of diplomatic practice.

However, it is plausible that the crude Pakistani action was a tit-for-tat response to the action by the Delhi Police and our intelligence in making the attendance of Indian guests difficult at the Pakistan Day celebrations in our capital on March 23, and a subsequent incident at the Pakistan high commissioner’s iftar dinner on May 28. Unpleasant scenes were seen then too, and innocent guests were harassed.

Deplorably, doing violence to diplomatic norms has been a regular feature of India-Pakistan relations over a very long period. This usually takes the form of the harassment of diplomats and mission staff of the other country through the use of rough tactics like aggressive tailing and intimidation, which is often also applied to the families of diplomats. This is most common when bilateral relations are at a low ebb, as at present. India-Pakistan ties hit rock bottom after Pakistani terrorists struck at the Pathankot airbase in January 2016, and Pulwama and Balakot have made matters a lot worse.

The Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan will both be attending the Bishkek summit of SCO nations later this month. Will they interact in any fashion there? Or will India hold out with its present stance until the Pakistan government can demonstrate substantive action against anti-India terrorists and the government-supported infrastructure of terrorism within Pakistan? If Islamabad gives the smallest hint of meaningful action, New Delhi would be wise to try and build on it.