The India-Pakistan ties have been at their lowest ebb now for a decade. With no strides in leadership from either side, the respective populaces keep their fingers crossed, as there is no headway either in the realms of socio-cultural interaction or geo-economics. Less said the better on outstanding irritants such as Kashmir and terrorism, and now the more pestering existential issues such as water sharing and climate change. For reasons of egoism, they are not on agenda even for an informal chat. Likewise, both the High Commissions are without their heads, and are functioning for the sake of formality, per se. That has led to retaining the status quo of mistrust.

In such a demoralised scenario, the decision from India to send in External Affair Minister Dr S Jaishankar to Islamabad, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation moot, has rekindled hopes of a thaw. The doves started reading deep between the lines, and were hoping for a rapprochement of sorts in the making. But that euphoria was short-lived as politics of regression was quick to set in, and there was an instant denial from New Delhi, saying the top diplomat will not be touch-basing bilateralism, and the sojourn is purely meant for multilateral participation. Period!

Pakistan, of late, had always endeavoured to fix the fence with India. It wants resolution of disputes in an amicable manner, and is eager to share the dividends of geo-economics with its eastern neighbour for the greater cause of regional peace and development. The spanner in the works came as Delhi jumped the gun and scraped the legitimate constitutional rights of Kashmiris on August 5, 2019, by abrogating the special status under Article 370 and 35-A. Since then there has been no recourse to dialogue, and tensions have swirled all along.

Let's recall two inevitable missed opportunities in our checkered bilateralism that came from the pinnacles of power. One, President General Pervez Musharraf advocated reconciliation by striking a mid-term deal over Kashmir, and flew into Delhi in July 2001, in a white half-sleeve shirt in all statesmanship. That piece of signaling went wayward and was scuttled by hawks for point-scoring. Two, former Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa is on record stating at the Islamabad Security Dialogue 2021 that resolution of Kashmir can wait, and India should work with Pakistan [meanwhile] to address other outstanding irritants. That gesture too was not read in proper decorum across the divide.