IT may be just a tiny ray of hope emerging from the storm clouds, but Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale’s assertion that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking forward to attending a November Saarc summit in Islamabad suggests that political dialogue with Pakistan is still a possibility this year. While the Indian prime minister has had a regrettable stretch in recent weeks with his comments about Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan, it remains the case that Mr Modi has also previously approached the path of dialogue, most notably with the creation of the stalled Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue and a surprise visit to Lahore last year. It remains within the Indian prime minister’s ability to once again embark on the path of dialogue and to shun the recent war of words between the two countries. Whether he will, and whether Pakistani officialdom does too, remains to be seen. It is also the case, however, that Mr Modi and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are contending with domestic forces in their respective countries that would perhaps like to see dialogue remain stalled.

In India, the political opposition, the security establishment and the hawkish elements in the BJP government all appear to believe that dialogue is futile — and seem willing to punish any domestic moves towards dialogue with Pakistan. A periodic conceit in India, one that is more evident as the country grows economically and acquires greater strategic influence on the world stage, is that global power can be aligned in a way which is advantageous to India, in order to punish Pakistan. The approach is rooted in the belief that not only is Pakistan a danger to the interests of the international community, but that it is irreversibly so and that there are no legitimate security interests which Pakistan is seeking to protect. It is a preposterous theory made all the more insidious by the implacable belief that, no matter what Pakistan does or the policies it pursues, this country is somehow a danger to itself, the region and the world. Few things are as dangerous as when policymakers, the political elite and influential citizens believe that dialogue itself is somehow inimical to their country’s interests.

Yet, for all the poisonous politics in India, there are fundamental questions that Pakistan must address. Consider the antagonistic rhetoric that is frequently deployed in Pakistan, at times seemingly no more than an amateurish attempt to rhetorically equal the score with India. Consider that last year, when India decided to whip up nationalist sentiment around the 50-year commemorations of the 1965 war, the Pakistani political discourse was flooded with jingoistic rhetoric. A year later, following India’s provocations on Balochistan, sections of the media and the political class are falling over themselves to condemn India as a sponsor of terrorism. Neither side appears to consider a mature response to the other.

Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016