Pakistan is responsible for the deadlock in the National Security Advisor (NSA) level talks scheduled for August 23 in New Delhi. It created a situation for External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to make such remarks. Islamabad while announcing the cancellation of its NSA meeting with New Delhi said late Saturday that “it cannot be held on the basis of the preconditions set by India.”The announcement by Pakistani authority ended the week-long suspense over the NSA-level talks. Violence in the border region is really creating uncomfortable situation for both the countries in the past one week. According to Meghnad Desai, “It was a betting certainty that incidents at Line of Control (LoC) would flare up as would terrorist attempts. In the long history of bilateral disputes, every time peace seems about to happen, forces are unleashed which would stop the process.” However, the immediate reason for Islamabad to call off the NSA level meeting was attributed to External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s remark who said “talks would be confined only to terror and that he (Sartaz Aziz) won’t meet the Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi.” Islamabad knew that Delhi would not take well should the former entertain separatist organization such as the Hurriyat. Such plans of the Pakistani authority to meet the separatists when efforts were being made by the Indian authority to create conducive atmosphere were nothing but attempts for derailing the peace initiatives. Why Islamabad had agreed at all for the NSA level meet when it had in mind to play up the sentiment of New Delhi? Such Islamabad’s brinkmanship has also been the cause for the failure to ensure a sustainable bilateral engagement between the two countries in the past seven decades. These moves of Pakistan are nothing but its attempts to engage in practical absurdity, an addition of caveat in the already sour relationship of the two countries. Now, unless Pakistan has a new brand of politicians India may not expect to find a suitable situation for hearty engagement with its bitter neighbor.
