Wednesday was tough for the sub-continent. The tit-for-tat attacks between India and Pakistan has created a fraught state of affairs, with the two countries teetering on the brink of a war. Early in the day Pakistan violated the Indian airspace in response to India’s bombing of a site at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which New Delhi said was Jaish-e-Muhammad headquarters and Pakistan denied. Islamabad has claimed two of the Indian aircrafts have been shot down and captured one pilot, a fact acknowledged by New Delhi. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in a speech sought to de-escalate the situation and offered India dialogue and assurance to act if provided with a proof of Pakistani involvement. India has so far not responded to the offer. One wishes that the neighbours get back to engagement. The challenge for the two countries is to live like normal neighbours which is something they have been singularly unable to do over the past so many years. In fact, as the fresh flare-up has once again underlined the two countries remain farthest from even confronting sanely their issues or handling their respective truths. Even sometimes a small incident brings into action a complex play of history, memory and prejudice. Things have gotten only worse over the past five years. There is now so much vitriol against each other in a substantial section of public life of the both countries – with media doing best to fan it – that it seems unnatural that the two countries could ever be friends. Pulwama attack and the subsequent extraordinary developments have further allowed the situation to deteriorate. Best thing that can happen to India and Pakistan under the circumstances is for them to learn to deal with their troubled relationship with a degree of care, maturity and understanding. There is an urgent need for them to return to dialogue and engagement as that alone holds a solution to their issues. The fresh crisis should be one more reminder there is no military solution to Indo-Pak problem.
Get back to dialogue
