After some fierce clashes along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir that began on Jan. 6, both India and Pakistan seem to have realized that to allow the situation to deteriorate any further would be in the interest of neither. All those who thought India was keeping up its dangerous game of military brinkmanship with Pakistan must have felt reassured by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks in Jaipur on Friday. Addressing his party colleagues, Singh said that Pakistan also had a constituency for peace. To cultivate this constituency is as important as sending a strong message to Islamabad over the recent incidents along the border. Indicating the shift in New Delhi's mood, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday welcomed the “positive statements” coming from Pakistan for talks to de-escalate tensions along the border. The recent incidents won't affect the peace process. Echoing his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar's remarks in New York last week, Khurshid said, “peace process was something in which we have invested a lot.” This was in sharp contrast to the inflammatory rhetoric that marked the exchanges between the South Asian neighbors after five soldiers from both sides were killed in the latest flare-up on the LoC. India says one of its soldiers was beheaded on Jan. 8. Pakistan continues to deny that its men were involved in the mutilation of the soldier's body but that did not stop India putting on hold a liberalized visa agreement and sending back nine top Pakistani players who were already in India for the Hockey India League. The latest confrontations are especially disturbing because despite violations, the cease-fire has been vital to changing lives on the ground for people living on both sides of the LoC. The biggest achievement of the India-Pakistan dialogue of the last 15 years, the cease-fire has helped Kashmiris on either side connect with each other after more than five decades of partition or separation. So the immediate task should be a recommitment by both sides to honor the terms of the cease-fire. The two countries must insulate the gains of the dialogue process — such as trade and visas — from minor violations and local skirmishes. Pakistan has called for talks at the foreign minsters' level to discuss these and related issues. Instead of staring down each other, India and Pakistan should talk to each other. Since winning independence from Britain in 1947, the two countries have fought four wars including the Kargil conflict of 1999. Another conflict would be disastrous for the whole region because the antagonists are nuclear-armed. Even the uneasy truce and the large defense spending it necessitates is a huge drain on their economies. This is money better spent on education, health care and such social services. The people of India and Pakistan who have so many things in common can be partners in peace and development if only politicians would allow them to look to the future rather than dwell on an unhappy past. If everything works according to schedule, the US would withdraw most of its troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. What happens in Afghanistan, and the rest of the region after that, will depend much on India and Pakistan. If they do not coordinate their policies, Afghanistan may become even more unstable and chaotic, posing a grave threat to the whole subcontinent.
