India’s former high commissioner to Pakistan, Sharat Sabharwal, has said that Indians must disabuse themselves of certain preconceived notions they have of how to handle Pakistan. He adds that at the same time, they must be made aware of the “silver linings” in Pakistan, i.e., aspects of Pakistan that they are either not aware of or have not appreciated.
He suggests this would lead people to realise that the view Pakistan is “an unmitigated disaster” is not wholly correct, though it is in many respects dysfunctional.
In a 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire to discuss his book India’s Pakistan Conundrum, Sabharwal identified three preconceived notions that the Indian people must discard. First, he says it’s not in India’s interests to promote the disintegration of Pakistan. “The resulting chaos will not leave India untouched,” he adds.
Second, he says Indians must disabuse themselves of the belief that India has the capacity to inflict a decisive military blow on Pakistan in conventional terms. “The nuclear dimension has made it extremely risky, if not impossible, for India to give a decisive military blow to Pakistan to coerce it into changing its behaviour.”
Third, he says Indians must disabuse themselves of the belief that they can use trade to punish Pakistan. “Use of trade as an instrument to punish Pakistan is both short-sighted and ineffective because of the relatively small volume of Pakistani exports to India.”
Sabharwal concludes that Pakistan remains a serious problem for India not just because of the Kashmir issue and terror inflicted by state-supported organisations in Pakistan, but also because “Pakistan is increasingly becoming part of India’s larger China problem.” This means that with Pakistan and China often working in tandem, we have a serious two-front problem both diplomatically and militarily.
He also says this means dialogue is important for India not because it can solve the problem – he thinks that is unlikely – but for the purposes of “managing the relationship with lower levels of volatility and violence”. He says India should talk to all stakeholders in Pakistan, including the army.
