Corridor of Faith: Pakistan's double standards force people to keep fingers crossed

New Delhi, Nov 8 Tit for tat may not always work in strategic diplomacy and more so when India sends  'goodwill' gestures and missives to Pakistan.

These thoughts are likely to cross the minds of stakeholders and observers a day before the historic Kartarpur Corridor inauguration.

Will the Kartarpur Corridor finally happen according to plans?

Some sceptics are already saying in any bilateral agreement, there is also a 'provision' to suspend its operation in case of 'exigencies' including natural disasters.

Sources say all the peace gestures from India - during the Narendra Modi regime and even before - have been met with mere rhetoric, double standards and betrayal from Islamabad either under civilian government or military rulers.
The 'contradictory statements' emanating from Pakistan on various facets related to Kartarpur have made people either keep their lips shut or at best fingers crossed.
"It is a matter of faith and the government and the entire country is taking a leap of faith vis-a-vis paying obeisance at the Kartarpur Sahib corridor," said a Bharatiya Janata Party source.
Sources said the ruling party and the central government feel "all will go as per plans".
They also point out that notwithstanding its hawkish image, the Modi government, too, in terms of giving scope to peace efforts with Pakistan has in last five years time and again shown 'magnanimity', but things did not work according to plans.

"One may find political rhetoric but in terms of offering olive branches to Islamabad, Prime Minister Modi had extended invitation to Nawaz Sharif for his 2014 swearing in and also opened up an unpublicised dialogue at the National Security Advisor level. But things could hardly move," the source said.

It is also pointed out that Mr Modi's Lahore visit and later the then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tour to Islamabad, too, were followed by gory episodes including Pathankot and Uri attacks.

Prior to that, New Delhi in 'unparalleled' generosity inked the Indus Waters Treaty in the 1960s.

The pacts at Tashkent and Shimla, too, were like peace gestures only.

During National Democratic Alliance-1, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had the historic bus journey to Lahore and even his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh made a perceived 'appeasement' approach at Sharm el-Sheikh braving strong criticism by the BJP.

Earlier, in 1990s, the Gujral doctrine was at play and India also had offered ''composite dialogue.''

  

Government officials, now say on the eve of opening of Kartarpur Corridor, there are repeated efforts to give mixed signals.

"There is a bilateral agreement, you cannot amend an agreement or MoU between two countries with a tweet or at a press conference," said one in the know of things.

Officials say it would be erroneous to suggest that Indian government did not 'anticipate' problems from Pakistan vis-a-vis their intention to foment Khalistani movement.

"India has been asking for this corridor since 1999, Pakistan agreed in 2018. We are delighted that it happened. However, we do have security concerns. Our security establishment is confident of handling these," the source added.