It is almost five years since Prime Minister Vajpayee had extended a hand of friendship to General Musharraf from Kashmir. This gesture had given rise to the much talked about Indo-Pak peace process. There was complete ceasefire on the Line of Control and a number of confidence building measures were initiated. Even though initially these measures especially partial opening of the Line of Control after 60 years created a lot of euphoria, yet these slowly petered out because of an evolutionary failure. These measures were supposed to grow by an evolutionary process. One had expected that the initial crossing of 30 odd persons would grow into a flood after a couple of years but in actual practice it remained an insignificant trickle, more for diplomatic consumption than actual benefit to locals. Once the BJP government was out, the process virtually came to a halt. The progress of various measures assumed a snails pace.

The only saving grace was that the ceasefire on the Line of Control kept on holding in spite of isolated incidents. There were many serious incidents of terrorist attacks in different metros of India which were blamed on Pakistani groups. However, these allegations did not erupt into a clash and the fragile peace continued. It now transpires that a number of these incidents did not actually emanate from Pakistan but were the handiwork of fanatic Hindu extremists. The first to get killed in the recent Mumbai attacks were the top brass of the Anti Terror Squad of Mumbai Police who had unearthed the entire conspiracy and were about to start the prosecution of the case. A number of Hindutva leaders, retired and serving officers of the Army were involved in these terrorist attacks. Strangely it is the Congress party which has always shied away from peace or has bungled the process. Congress government in India had inherited an excellent opportunity for a détente from its predecessor BJP government.

They only had to press forward vigorously to complete the process of resolution of the vexed problem of Kashmir. Unfortunately they dithered and let a historic opportunity slip by. It was shear lack of political will which wasted this wonderful opening that rarely comes in the history of nations. Probably one of main causes has been the absence of mutual trust between the two antagonistic neighbours. The congress government miserably failed to reciprocate building of this trust in spite of repeated offers from General Musharraf. Even after a lapse of more than 60 years and three destructive wars, they have not learnt any lessons. Both the countries continue to deal with each other with total mistrust. In fact, Pakistanis still feel Indians have not reconciled to the creation of their country as an independent sovereign state. They also continue to hold the belief that the agenda of partition is still incomplete.

They consider Kashmir to be a natural part of Pakistan of which they were forcibly deprived by the Indians. Some people still dream of regaining Hyderabad and Junagarh also! Notwithstanding the sweet words uttered by the politicians on two sides, the people who matter, such as the bureaucrats, military bosses, intelligence chiefs and others mistrust each other and continue to go ahead with their plans of destroying each other’s capabilities. Both the sides try to tread cautiously on a knife edge, keeping both options open. It is because of this lack of basic trust that confidence building measures and other peace initiatives started with great fanfare slowly fade out after sometime. Each side is suspicious of other’s moves. Both the countries which are classified poor by any standards spend bulk of their budgets on development of their defence forces. Billions are expended on buying lethal weapons from all over the world.

If only they could come to the terms of mutual peace and divert these precious resources to the upliftment of the poor, these would in real terms become welfare states. People in the sub-continent need food, shelter, education, healthcare, and basic infrastructure for decent living and not fighter jets, tanks, missiles, and nuclear weapons for mass destruction. The politicians on the two sides of the divide are manipulated by the outsiders who initially planted the seeds of dissension in the sub-continent in 1947. According to the minutes of secret meetings held in Paris in late forties between the US and UK politicians and bureaucrats, it had been decided to keep Kashmir divided between the two newly proposed nations to ensure their finger in the affairs of the sub-continent. The world’s annual armament production totals more than $ 950 billion and half of it is produced by USA. They need areas of conflict to keep their factories running and especially with the disastrous financial meltdown resulting in a dangerous recession; they may need more trouble spots to keep their jobs in the defence sector intact. It is a pity that the originators of the conflict are coming to the sub-continent to broker peace between the warring neighbours.

The most ironical part of the recent Mumbai attack has been the role of electronic media. In fact, it is this totally biased and prejudiced media which is not only manipulating but virtually running the government’s foreign policy on the prompting and feeding of certain groups and agencies. They have not only initiated a virtual trial but have even pronounced the guilty verdict before the completion of the investigation itself! How there can be a peace process in such conditions of prejudice and suspicion? It is not for the first time that such tragic events have occurred in different parts of the country. However, in earlier such events it was the common masses that faced the brunt of the attacks. None of these Samaritans and Saviours lost any sleep that time. But now it is the elite which has been the target and all of them seem to have suddenly woken up and are protesting ferociously. Strangely one does not see a massive grass roots reaction in different parts of the country because of these attacks. May be the poor are having the last laugh. For a change it is the rich this time who have been the main targets of these assaults! They are now vehemently opposing all politicians irrespective of cast, creed, or colour and are advocating jingoistic attitude. Pakistan is claimed to be a failing state and if further pushed it may totally fail.

However, it will not fail in isolation but make the entire region around it collapse. It is like a dying star which collapses on itself and turns into a black hole swallowing all the matter around it. Right now it is not only the peace process which is in danger of collapse but the entire region could turn into the next battlefield which the western powers especially the Americans are eagerly looking forward to. They want some relief and diversion from the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan. There could be no better choice than the evergreen centre of conflict, the “nuclear flashpoint” of Kashmir. It is time for the common people in the entire sub-continent including those in Kashmir to wake up to these machinations of the originators of these conflicts and their lackeys and stop from becoming their guinea pigs. It is possible only when the Muslims and Hindus realise that they are not each others’ enemies but their common enemies are poverty, disease, and illiteracy! We have to build a climate of mutual trust to succeed in our endeavour for peace. It is tragic that when the westerners are fattening because of our vast markets, we are at each others’ throats. Let us hope Mumbai the gateway of India shows the way of truth to one and all. Who knows the fragile peace process instead of collapsing may ultimately get strengthened? Both, the War and the Peace are supposed to result from accidents. The World War I was started by the assassination of the Prince, and the present European peace resulted from the demolition of Berlin Wall! Let us pray that the present accident is for Peace and not for War!