Keep the doors open for talks with Pakistan

The case for the two nuclear-armed States to have a dialogue is strategic, not civilisational

- Happymon Jacob

Newly elected members of the Pakistan National Assembly take oath in Islamabad on February 29.

(REUTERS)

When Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told the Press Trust of India on May 12 that “doors should not be closed” for talks with Pakistan, and that there must always be “a window for dialogue”, the remark deserved more attention than it received.

Hosabale was speaking of the operational language of visas, sports, trade, and structured engagement.

The context of his statement is important. It came a year after Operation Sindoor, with the Indus Waters Treaty still in suspension and New Delhi unwilling to have any conversation with Islamabad. Meanwhile, the strategic environment around India has hardened in ways that make an opening with Pakistan “not an unthinkable proposition”. Pakistan’s defence pact with Saudi Arabia has deepened the former's ties with West Asia while India’s traditional ability to balance various players in the region has become constrained. China openly supports, and US President Donald Trump continues to favour, Islamabad. Moreover, another terror attack could trigger a kinetic exchange that can take us into unknown territory.

In that sense, India’s strategic interest in keeping the lines of communication open with Pakistan, then, has less to do with Pakistan itself and more with managing the new geopolitical realities. Talks with Pakistan, in this reading, is a hedging instrument, not a concession to that country. It is what serious nuclear-armed States do as a matter of risk management.

What indeed is the state of communications between India and Pakistan a year after Operation Sindoor?