KARACHI: A book titled Hostility: A Diplomat’s Diary on Pakistan-India Relations by Pakistan’s former high commissioner to India Abdul Basit was launched at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) on Saturday afternoon.

Introducing the book to the audience, Ambassador Basit said the Foreign Service officers think that when they retire they’d share their experiences with the people of Pakistan by penning them down. This was also his intention: to write a memoir covering his career from 1982 to 2017.

When in 2009 he became the Foreign Office’s spokesperson he thought now he was seeing things firsthand, participating in decision making. It was a challenging period for Pakistan — Salala check-post attack, the Raymond Davis case, etc, had happened. From there, he was posted in Germany as Pakistan’s ambassador and the focus there was mostly on economics.

Ambassador Basit said in 2013 he was called to Islamabad. He was a little confused. He then had a meeting with then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Subsequently, he landed in New Delhi as Pakistan’s high commissioner.

As to why he wrote the book, the ambassador said, one important reason was when he arrived in Delhi it was the election period (April-May 2014). “We could see that the BJP would be winning this election. I was preparing myself to reach out to the BJP leadership and even the RSS knowing who would be calling the shots. Lo and behold, the BJP wins the election and Modi becomes prime minister. Things then went haywire.”

In his memoirs, Ambassador Basit claims Nawaz Sharif did not raise Kashmir issue in his first meeting with Modi

He said the meeting between the two prime ministers (Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif) took place on May 27, 2014. Many in Pakistan were of the view that Nawaz Sharif should not be attending Modi’s inauguration. “I thought it would be a good idea if our prime minister comes and meets Modi face to face, we could build on it. So our prime minister comes and the two prime ministers started liking each other. Our prime minister also recited Punjabi poetry [to Modi] … That meeting was very productive. Both agreed that the Indian foreign secretary would visit Pakistan in August in order to talk about how to resume the dialogue process,” he said.

He said before the prime minister went to meet Mr Modi, they prepared talking points for the meeting in order to form a strategy. It was decided that our prime minister would not raise the issue of Kashmir because it was the first meeting. But it was also decided that if Modi were to raise the issue of terrorism or the Mumbai attacks’ trial then our prime minister would respond and raise the issue of Kashmir.

He said in the meeting Mr Modi started talking about terrorism and the Mumbai attacks. Our prime minister kept silent. When we came out of the meeting Indian foreign secretary Sujatha Singh held a press a conference saying the Indian prime minister told the Pakistani prime minister about terrorism. “We were in a difficult situation.”

Ambassador Basit said he thought since they were not keeping the Hurriyat in the loop it was time that before the Indian foreign secretary went to Islamabad, he should tell the Hurriyat leadership as to what transpired in the meeting. Therefore, he invited the Kashmiri leaders to the high commission. He was sitting with former RAW chief Ajit Doval when he received a call from his secretary that the Indian foreign secretary would like to talk to him; he said he’d do that upon reaching the high commission.

He went back to the high commission where he was to meet the Kashmir leadership; he called up the relevant office and was told in a threatening tone that if he went ahead with the meeting (with the Kashmir leaders) then the Indian foreign secretary would not be able to visit Pakistan. He knew if he went ahead with it the foreign secretary wouldn’t go to Pakistan and he’d have problems with prime minister Nawaz Sharif. “I thought I should go ahead with the meeting because Kashmir was more important than Abdul Basit or anyone else.”

He said afterwards he was called by Mr Sharif who, in the end, realised the importance of the matter. Because of that most of Indian commentators began calling him ‘hawkish’.

“Throughout my stay in India, the Indian establishment didn’t allow me to function smoothly.” For example, he was to address Aligarh University three times, but it didn’t happen. “At the same time, I felt that the people of India had started liking me for some reason. I would be invited not only to Jamia Masjid but also to the Baisakhi festival and huge Hindu congregations.”

Ambassador Basit on the purpose of writing Hostility said it’s to show to the people of Pakistan that how over the years Pakistan’s Kashmir policy has been undermined because of our own omissions. The purpose was also to convey to the people of India that our two countries cannot have a normal relationship until and unless the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is resolved.

‘Book is not an indictment’

He pointed out that the book is not an indictment against Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari, Gen Musharraf or even the present government. “I have tried to be objective on Pakistan because diplomacy despises incoherence and excessive rhetoric.”

Ambassador Basit said he thought after Aug 5, 2019 our government would be able to do something different but it had been doing the same things again and again.

“Kashmir has become too difficult an issue and I do not see India under any pressure … there’s no clarity on how to deal with India,” he said.

He argued that India was a very difficult country and under the Modi sarkar it has become more and more difficult for us.

The book launch was organised by the Pakistan Council on Foreign Relations (PCFR).

Ambassador Shahid Amin, IoBM president Talib Karim and Jamil Ahmed Khan also spoke. Shaheen Salahuddin moderated the event.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2021