AS the Kartarpur corridor plaque was unveiled, my mind went back to a breezy afternoon almost 20 years ago at the Wagah-Atari border when Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, on his historic Lahore yatra, alighted from the bus. There was a crucial difference this time. At Kartarpur, Pakistan’s army chief was standing alongside Prime Minister Imran Khan while there was no such presence on the occasion of the Lahore bus yatra.

I viewed the Kartarpur corridor ground-breaking ceremony on television, while during Mr Vajpayee’s visit, I was present as part of official duty. At the Kartarpur ceremony, one failed to see the kind of euphoria that was there amongst Indian journalists during the Lahore bus yatra. The scars of the Mumbai attack remain. Over the past decade, all offers of talks by Pakistan have been spurned by India. This obduracy has to be seen in the larger context. The bus yatra move was followed by Kargil. Similarly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise stopover at Lahore in 2015 was followed by the Pathankot incident, and we were back to square one.

Right now, India’s constant harping on allegations of terrorism against Pakistan remain high on its agenda. The latter’s public assurances that it isn’t allowing its territory to be used as a staging ground for terrorists has done little to break the stalemate. So how do we get out of this deadlock? Handing down justice to the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack remains the sticking point. This protracted trial needs to conclude urgently. There needs to be a well-structured framework with proper time lines to get the trial out of the way. India should provide, and Pakistan must insist, on having access to all the material evidence to remove the stumbling blocks.

On this point, there is neither nod nor refusal from the Indian side for obvious reasons. Ambivalence on India’s part could fetch more mileage as lack of material evidence may result in the acquittal of the alleged accomplices. Such acquittals could serve the present mood of the hawks in the BJP. Having faced setbacks in recent state elections, the ruling party is likely to whip up anti-Pakistan fervour in the forthcoming general elections.

Efforts must be intensified to promote a softer image.

Pakistan, on the other hand, needs to move on. Beyond the peace corridor, there is a need to intensify efforts to promote a softer image of the country. A visa-on-arrival regime in certain categories should be implemented, especially for pilgrims wanting to visit Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist religious sites. As a first step, visa on arrival for non-resident Indian Sikh pilgrims from Europe and North America should be put in place. This could eventually lead to every Sikh yatri planning to visit their home in India to choose Lahore as the point of disembarkation.

The refrain of ‘cross-border terrorism’ has been a handy ploy for the India-US lobby to keep Pakistan on the back foot. We now need to come up with a more proactive and evidence-based discourse. We need to build on the fact that there has been a steep fall in alleged incursions in Kashmir and, at the same time, there have been unabated spikes in indigenous protests as well as growing state violence inside the India-occupied valley.

It is high time we started disaggregating the causes of militancy inside the valley and formulate a response accordingly. One would be keen to know, for instance, as to what action has been taken on the Indian side against the Border Security Force officials who have failed to stop alleged incursions by non-state intruders.

India and Pakistan must break the deadlock regardless of their stated positions. Instead of adopting a maximalist approach, we need to work on a minimalist agenda as a first step and treat Kashmir as a human rights issue. Kashmiris don’t deserve pellet-scarred faces. Pakistan has to go beyond declarations and must take all measures to ensure that its territory is not used as a springboard for igniting unrest. The Indian government should also scale down its armed presence in civilian-populated areas and dispense with the reckless use of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

The route to this destination lies only through talks, but India’s current political landscape doesn’t seem to be conducive to dialogue. The BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak nexus prefers to see things through the Muslim binary domestically, and through Pakistan when it comes to the region: no talks, no cricket, no Saarc — that has been the order of the day for the past five years.

This has proved to be quite convenient for the BJP government. While not much has been achieved in terms of vikas ie development, or shasan ie governance, it doesn’t cost much to keep creating hype around gao rakhsha (cow protection), Ram Mandir and surgical strikes. Pakistan must rise above this and continue to take measured steps to promote an air of amity, and show exceptional restraint in the next few crucial months.

The writer is a public policy analyst and a former interior secretary. He is adjunct faculty at Lums.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2018