India- Pakistan (Baap- Beta )Relation
India Pakistan Relation- A tale of an unending war and unfulfilled desires.
Hello readers in this blog I will discuss about one of the most important topics of all times.
Pakistan got separated from India in 1947 with a new India recently taste the success of a long and successful campaign to gain independence from the Britishers. The two nations having shared culture, language,heritage was divided on the lines of Religion. Pakistan adopted the Islamic laws as the guiding principle to rule the Nation whereas Indian leader took time to frame a constitution for a free India.
Let's discuss this in more details
👉 Pakistan represents the biggest foreign policy challenge to India and is source of all sorts of threats, from nuclear war to proxy wars.
VIEWS-
• Stephen P. Cohen- ‘Shooting for the century’: It is a paired minority conflict and has reached mutually hurting stalemate where India can’t win and Pakistan can't lose. The other examples of such rivalries are Jews-Arab,Shia-Sunni.
• Rajesh Basrur- The fundamental contradictions are India’s status quoist approach on Kashmir and Pakistan’s
determination to change it.
📌KEY ISSUES IN INDIA-PAKISTAN
BORDER ISSUE
📍Kashmir-
♦️Wars: Both countries have fought 3 wars on the Kashmir issue. It is not just a battle of territory but a battle of identities.
♦️Internationalisation of issue: Pakistan aims to internationalise the Kashmir issue whereas India considers it a Bilateral issue as per Shimla Agreement of 1971.
♦️ According to scholars it is believed that till Kashmir issue is solved, India-Pakistan relations can’t be normalised.
Siachen-
👉Operation Meghdoot: LoC could not be demarcated beyond NJ9842 due to bad weather. India acquired strategically important points in ‘Operation Meghdoot’.
👉As many as 167 Army personnel lost their lives in Siachen Glacier in the last 10 years due to weather-related incidents.
👉Agreement could not reach: Both countries came close to an agreement on Siachen Glacier thrice - in 1989,in 1992 and then in 2006. However, agreement could not be completed because of huge trust deficit
between countries.
Sir Creek-
♦️ It is a 92 km stretch of marshy land separating Gujarat from Sindh.
♦️The dispute lies in the interpretation of the maritime boundary line between Kutch and Sindh.
♦️ Pakistan claims the entire creek as per paragraphs 9 and 10 of the Bombay Government Resolution of 1914 signed between then the Government of Sindh and Rao Maharaj of Kutch.
♦️ But India claims that the boundary lies mid-channel as depicted in another map drawn in 1925, and implemented by the installation of mid-channel pillars back in 1924.
Gilgit Baltistan issue-
📍Recently Pakistan has given ‘Provincial status’ to Gilgit Baltistan making it 5th province of Pakistan. It was part of
the erstwhile J&K state.
Other issues-
📍 ASYMMETRIC BALANCING- Pakistan uses terrorism as means to destabilise Kashmir. Many terrorist launch pads have been established in PoK along Kashmir border to infiltrate terrorists into India.
📍 TRADE- Political tensions have also impacted trade relations between India and Pakistan.
📍Intra-regional trade- accounts for a little more than 5 percent of South Asia’s total trade while it accounts for 50 percent of total trade in East Asia and the Pacific and 22 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. SAARC and
SAFTA are also ineffective due to the conflictual relations between two.
📍 After the Pulwama terror attack in February 2019, India withdrew the non-discriminatory market status it
had unilaterally granted Pakistan in 1996, popularly known as Most Favoured Nation, and imposed a customs duty of 200% on all goods originating from Pakistan.
📍 India also suspended cross-LoC trade in April 2019 on receiving reports that these routes were being misused by Pakistan-based elements for funnelling illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency.
CHINA PAKISTAN ALL WEATHER FRIENDSHIP-
👉Recent India-China border standoff in Ladakh Region have increased possibility of 2 front war on North-western and North-Eastern borders.
👉Strategic encirclement: China is also using Pakistan for strategic encirclement of India through CPEC and Gwadar port.
👉 China-Pakistan-Iran-Russia axis: The emerging China-Pakistan-Iran-Russia axis can endanger India’s security on Northern borders as well as in Indian ocean.
👉China has raised J&K issue in UNSC for third time since 2019.
👉OPPOSITION TO INDIA’S UNSC SEAT CLAIM- Pakistan has formed coffee club to oppose permanent seat for India at UNSC.
👉 CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT- Pakistani forces have violated the ceasefire 5,100 times in 2020 with an average of 14 cases daily. In these ceasefire violations, 36 people including 24 security personnel were killed and 130 injured.Recently accepted ceasefire agreement in 2022 had significantly decreased the violation whereas the border areas are always on boil.
📌WAY FORWARD-
👉Continuing dialogue- While sticking to its redlines on terrorism and Kashmir, India should work towards building on the ceasefire pact and resuming a more comprehensive dialogue.
👉Enhancing Trade Relations- Recently, Pakistan allowed limited imports of sugar, cotton, and wheat from India.Both countries can build on this to normalise trade along the border.
👉Confidence Building Measures like prisoner exchanges, sporting visas etc can go long way to reduce trust deficit between 2 countries.
👉Backchannel Diplomacy through civil society and industry bodies and third-party counties like Saudi Arabia and UAE can compensate for diplomatic standoff.
👉 Soft Power Diplomacy like PM Modi’s greetings letter on Pakistan day, hydro diplomacy on Indus water sharing and cricket diplomacy can have spill over effect on creating comprehensive and sustainable conflict resolution mechanism.
👉 Apart from all these efforts Indian Forces should always be full equipped and battle ready to go on war or covert operations to have an upper hand on the enemy.
Thanks for reading.
Follow us and feel free to share your opinions and views.
Comments
Post a Comment