It was almost after a year that the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan met in Bhutan to restart the suspended peace process. The meeting was the result of a continuous “nudge” from the Americans very keen to sort out their own problems in Af-Pak. To enable them to concentrate on the western front, they needed all quiet on the eastern front. The way the things started moving, they seemed to have succeeded in kick starting the peace process once again. Shifting of over hundred forty thousand Pak soldiers from the eastern to western front and fixing of dates for the meeting of home and foreign ministers of two countries were the indicators of some tacit understanding probably engineered by the Americans. The process appeared to have started moving ahead. However, from the very start the two sides have been giving out contradictory signals. While as the Pakistani side is claiming that the original peace process is being restarted and the composite dialogue has to begin, the Indian side is saying that they have agreed to start the process anew forgetting the progress already achieved. Indian side right from the Prime Minister downwards have been repeatedly declaring that it is essential to build the trust first before the actual dialogue to resolve various issues is earnestly commenced. The problem with both sides is that they have never been honest in their approach towards settling the issues plaguing the sub-continent. The ruling elite in both the countries have been rather utilising their differences in strengthening their vote banks. Apart from this they have certain inherent pulls in their societies which prevent them from going whole hog for achieving the ultimate peace. It is these hidden pulls which prevent the total implementation of various confidence building measures on the ground. All these so called people friendly measures have remained symbolic for diplomatic and media consumption in spite of a lapse of more than 5 years or so. It is not that common people are not excited about these but it is the hidden hand of “security” which keeps these in check and does not allow complete flowering of these for the building of the mutual trust.

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? Even though it may seem to be a difficult assignment yet when seen in practical terms, it is the easiest thing to do. Only requirement is 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 were existing behind the Iron Curtain! Elite interactions in five star hotels are not going to build the trust. Cocktail circuits 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 is the main cause 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!