A series of Indo-Pak meetings were scheduled from the 25th of June with the prime motive of building the trust between the two perennially antagonistic neighbours. This is really good news but the moot point is how to achieve that difficult goal? The trust deficit has been there right from the day these two independent nations were created by the British in 1947. Before the Partition there had been a grouse among a section of the North Indian Hindus against the Muslims who ruled India for almost 800 years. However, after the Partition it became an obsession. Hindus felt that in addition to having ruled them for such a long time these “invaders” from the west had snatched half of their country. Additionally, the Pakistanis instead of aligning themselves with the other half of the sub-continent preferred their co-religionists in the Middle East considering themselves to be an extended part of that Muslim belt. This not only accentuated the trust deficit between the two communities but took it to extremes where each is gunning for other’s country! They do not realise that any clash now between the two nuclear armed countries would be an Armageddon for the both! If one goes down, the other won’t survive. This mistrust created after partition has been utilised by the extremist elements in both countries as the nourishment for advancing their ideologies. Before the actual Partition the leaders from both sides seem to have made wrong calculations about the results of this unnatural divide. The Indians probably thought that by getting rid of the Muslim majority areas they would be saved from many headaches. They also probably thought that the new country would not survive for long. Unfortunately, they seem to have been proved wrong on both counts. The creation of the separate country (now two of these) did not solve their problem but created a more deadly Frankenstein monster for them. The promoters of Pakistan too did not get what they had dreamt about. Firstly, the country broke into two. Secondly, they created a monster of terrorism which is eating away at the vitals of their society and the country itself. Because of this perennial mistrust, both the countries have invested major chunks of their budgets in perfecting their war machines. The poor people continue to live below the poverty line and a large chunk of the population finds it difficult to survive, not to speak of living in a welfare state in spite of more than 63 years of independence!

In 1947 they got an opportunity to both perfect and symbolise their basic mistrust and that was the creation of Kashmir dispute. A number of wars and proxy wars fought on this ticklish issue have made it the main bone of contention between the two. On the Indian side it is the main plank for nourishing the tree of Hindutva while as on the other side it is the top most reason to wage a holy war! If one analyses various factors on the Indian side, it transpires that most of the roadblocks are put up by the security establishment in the garb of protecting the “National interest”. The political leadership too fears for its vote bank while taking any drastic steps to implement various trust building measures regardless of the fact whether these relate to liberalising the visa regime, increasing the cross-border trade, or settlement of easily solvable problems like Siachen, or Sir Creek! Their main fear is the sword of Hindutva being wielded by the other side. In order to blunt the sharp edges of this sword the ruling elite itself often tries to behave like someone more loyal than the king! A pertinent example of this is the competition between Congress and BJP in getting Afzal Guru hanged at the earliest. The tree of Hindutva needs Muslim blood for its growth. It does not matter if it is the blood of an Indian, Kashmiri, or foreign Muslim. Islam is portrayed as the religion of terror and all Muslims as terrorists. Thanks to Americans, they have spread this canard after 9/11 throughout the world and the Hindutva brigade has found it very convenient to spread its own stories. Needless to mention that the recent investigations have unearthed involvement of the Hindutva brigade in most of the violent incidents attributed earlier to Muslim youth in India.

Same is the story on the other side. The ruling elite living in modern luxuries of the west is mortally scared of the extremist elements bent upon disintegrating India. For them the ultimate Jihad is the conquest of India and establishment of an Islamic state throughout the world. Earlier this elite coming from the feudal aristocracy was utilising the emotions and fervour of these holy fighters to settle scores with India. Now, they have turned inwards and infiltrated into various spheres of establishment and security. In order to save their skins, this mod elite has fallen totally in the lap of Americans and are doing their bidding. To achieve American goals, Muslims are killing Muslims! Like BJP in India, the religious groups in Pakistan are a nightmare for the democratic and progressive rulers if ever there are some! The government does not want to appear weaker when facing the Indians. They have to be seen to be more aggressive sometimes to keep the extremists in check. In such circumstances one fails to understand how the trust deficit can be bridged?

Given the above background, it may seem a very difficult assignment to build the trust between the two countries yet when seen in practical terms; it is the easiest thing to do provided there is a strong political will on both sides. The first and foremost is to allow the common people to meet and interact with each other without any let or hindrance. As recently pointed out by the organisers of the Aman ki Asha peace initiative the first step is the relaxing of the visa regime. They have proposed a number of practical steps to make the travel between two countries easy. At the moment the travel across and the movement within each country have worst restrictions than those which existed behind the Iron Curtain! Elite interactions in five star hotels are not going to build the trust. Members of the Cocktail circuit every where trust each other. Trust is to be built at the grass roots level. In Europe it was built by the sudden collapse of the Berlin Wall. We cannot achieve overnight what Europeans have achieved after two bloody wars. At least we can make a visible and realistic beginning by going beyond the symbolic gestures. Cross border travel needs to be made easy immediately.

While talking of building trust between these two perennially antagonistic neighbours one must not forget Kashmir which, as explained above, has become the main symbol of mistrust. Both sides have been using Kashmir as an emotive issue to stir the common people. While Indians have been claiming it to be their integral part, the Pakistanis have projected it as their jugular vein! In the process the local people have been used as guinea pigs or the canon fodder. To allow the trust to build up, Kashmiris will have to be pacified first. One cannot expect bonhomie between these two South Asian giants as long as the pot of Kashmir is boiling. Thus if one has to go along the present hype of trust building in the sub-continent, it must start from Kashmir itself! There is no need to spell out details of how Kashmir can be pacified. It is too well known now throughout the world!