At a diplomatic level, Tharoor kept his cool and was able to put forth his argument that India and Pakistan should go beyond their respective narratives and undertake concrete actions where possible. He also made a forceful point that it is not in India's own interest to see a destabilized Pakistan, and that is the reason he does not believe that India has any hand in Balochistan unrest, etc. etc.MurthyB wrote:Heated India Pakistan Debate with Dr. Shashi Tharoor? (Sochta Pakistan, 7 Jan 2012)
Tharoor does a good job of keeping up his diplomats mask and never loses his cool, although one wishes he had given them a few more punches. All in all, he is on message, and in a bizarre role reversal, is the lone wolf standing with a grin while 3 little piggies ..er I mean pakis huff and puff and try to blow the wolf away (from Siachen for instance)
He made suggestions such as
1) Liberalization of visa regime between the two countries
2) Pakistan according MFN status to India
3) "India has the technology while Pakistan has the wind" as an energy solution
4) Cricketing ties are again coming onstream.
5) India should be importing Pakistani cement
From my perspective, this is all useful, only if India is however working to break up Pakistan. If we are not, then it is just marginally useful, because it allows him to counter the Pakistani narrative, where possible. However he also offers the Pakistanis present at the discussion to present their own narratives in the presence of an Indian and all those points which remain not countered end up giving Pakistani viewers the impression that they are indeed true, in which case Shashi ends up helping Pakistani establishment to sell their narrative to the Pakistani people. So it is a mixed bag.
The problem is that Shashi in order to appear diplomatic and congenial has to support Pakistan's demands that Indian forces withdraw from Siachin. In this he is siding with the Pakis against the wishes and better judgment of our own security forces. In my view this was inappropriate. He says it is due to trust deficit but is of the opinion that it can be bridged. It is unclear whether he means what he said or whether he is simply giving the Pakis some hope even as he knows that that gap is unbridgeable, and as such no movement is expected on this. Still it is not nice to see or show that the Indian political leadership and the Indian Army disagree on Siachen. It is wrong to give Pakis that impression and it was a concession uncalled for.
He should have said that Pakistan has indeed succeeded in converting some Indian Kashmiris over to a pro-Pakistani Wahhabi extremist Islam, and that minority has been keeping J&K on the boil. So even if the boil is by Kashmiris themselves, Pakistan is still at fault and India holds Pakistan to be at fault. As a Congress man, I don't know whether Shashi can state that truth.
The danger is that Shashi may end up becoming another Mani Shanker Aiyar.
Pakistanis are of naturally pissed off that nobody in the world buys their narrative anymore against India and are now pleading with Indians to help them make their case internationally against the Indian narrative! What a bunch of losers!
