BY INDER MALHOTRA
NO twist or turn in India-Pakistan negotiations surprises anyone. But what has happened after the foreign ministers’ talks in Islamabad last week is more than usually bizarre. In effect, what Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr Shah Mehmoud Qureshi, has done is to excel his past performance and raise the ante so much as to queer the pitch for the present at least.

At the end of the joint press conference the only saving grace was that the talks hadn’t broken down, that the two sides had agreed to remain engaged, and that Mr Qureshi had accepted the invitation of his Indian counterpart, Mr S M Krishna, to visit India in December to pick up the threads. Apparently, the idea of the Indian hosts was that by then it would be obvious whether or not Pakistan was taking adequate and effective action against all the perpetrators and masterminds of the dastardly terrorist attack from Pakistani soil on Mumbai in November 2008. Incidentally, it is worth remembering that the second anniversary of 26/ 11 would have come and gone before the proposed date for the Pakistani foreign minister’s arrival.
Indo-Pak Peace Talks
Let us overlook the petty and hurtful things Mr Qureshi said about India and Mr Krishna at the apparently orchestrated joint press conference; the next morning he flip-flopped even while trying to do some damage limitation. Later that day, however, he stunned almost everyone by magisterially laying down conditions for his visit to Delhi. He was not interested in going to Delhi for a “leisure trip”, he said. He would accept the invitation to go there only if India were ready for “meaningful”, “result-oriented” and “constructive” talks on all issues. This should be read together with his repeated claim earlier that at Islamabad the Indian side was “not prepared for the talks”.
How provocative was the Pakistan foreign minister’s declaration should be clear from the immediate reaction of Foreign Secretary, Ms Nirupama Rao, who had made every possible effort to avoid the impression that the parleys in Islamabad were a failure. “It is for Pakistan to decide whether a statement like this (Mr Qureshi’s) can help in building up trust. The ball is now in Pakistan’s court,” she said.   
Fight against Terror
By the time Mr Qureshi’s pronouncement hit Delhi, the real reason why there could be no agreement at Islamabad even though during the preparatory discussions both sides had shown willingness to accept such doable ideas as meetings on trade, people-to-people contacts and so on. When Pakistan insisted that it could not be party to the focus being on 26/11 and terrorism only and that the talks should cover all major issues, including Kashmir, water, Siachen etc the Indian side stretched its mandate and offered to schedule talks at various levels on subjects of interest to Pakistan. What India could not agree to was a precise time frame for these meetings. Moreover, Pakistan refused to make any specific commitment on action regarding 26/11. This destroyed any chance of a joint statement being issued. 
However, notwithstanding Mr Qureshi’s tall claims on his behalf–implicit in his mean and false remark that Mr Krishna was getting frequent phone messages from New Delhi even in the midst of talks, while he (Mr Qureshi) needed no such instructions–the fact is he is not the maker of Pakistan’s foreign policy. His is its mere implementer. Plenty of evidence to underscore this has trickled out. It has been reported, for instance, that the time fixed for Mr Krishna’s calls on the President, Mr Asif Ali Zardari and PM, Mr Yousaf Raza Gilani had to be changed because the country’s all-powerful Army Chief, General Ashfaque Kayani, had decided to see Mr Zardari and Mr Gilani.
The Indian delegation was quick to notice that it was only after the General’s meetings with the top two leaders of the ineffectual civilian government that Mr Qureshi’s attitude at the conference table hardened conspicuously. Nor is it a surprise that obviously inspired reports have already appeared in the Pakistani media to the effect that General Kayani is being given a two-year extension along with the proviso that he could get one more year if it is felt that the situation warrants this. For, there must be “continuity in the war on terror.”
Surge in Infiltration
At Thimpu where, on the sidelines of the SAARC summit, Indian PM, Dr  Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart met and directed their foreign ministers to resume the dialogue, the Indian side had gained the impression that the Pakistan Army had “empowered” the civilian government to take the India-Pakistan peace process forward. This was clearly a misperception. For, while the Pakistan government did go through the motions of preparing the ground for the foreign ministers’ meet, the Pakistan Army has pursued its objective of accentuating the friction with its “main enemy”, India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir relentlessly. There has been a surge in infiltration of Pakistani militants belonging to the LeT and other terrorist outfits. Moreover, on its own, the Pakistani Army has unabashedly increased its violations of the cease-fire in J&K. A particularly vicious violation took place on the night of the foreign ministers’ talks in the Poonch sector.
The infiltration issue is very serious and Mr Krishna raised it during the talks. But the answer that Mr Qureshi gave at the joint press conference was offensive. Yet neither the foreign minister nor anyone in the Indian delegation challenged it. This is strange, indeed shocking. For, this country has rightly reacted strongly to Mr Qureshi’s crude attempt to equate Hafiz Sayeed’s hate-India speeches with the Indian Home Secretary, Mr B K Pillai’s factual statement on David Headley’s testimony. Many have, in fact, blamed Mr Krishna for delaying his defence of Mr Pillai until after his return home.
It is all the more surprising that no one has slapped down Mr Qureshi’s statement on increasing infiltration from Pakistan across the Line of Control (LoC). For this is what the Pakistani foreign minister said on the subject: “Infiltration is not the policy of the Pakistan government or of its intelligence agencies. Period. If stray people come in, deal with them firmly.” In other words, influx of Pakistani terrorists into Kashmir is India’s business, and Pakistan has nothing to do with it! The whole basis of the peace process is President Musharraf’s commitment to Prime Minister Vajpayee in January 2004 not to allow Pakistan’s territory to be “used against India”!
The key question is where do we go from here? BJP’s anger against Mr Qureshi’s fulminations at the end of an unsuccessful meeting might be understandable. But its strident call for an immediate “suspension”, if not termination, of India-Pakistan talks is uncalled for. Nations talk of their enemies even in the midst of war. The PM vision of a “peaceful and prosperous” South Asia is laudable. But there are two problems with it: Are there at least some in Pakistan’s ruing establishment ready to reciprocate? And is anyone trying the build up the public opinion in this country?