 "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is greeted by his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his arrival in Lahore")
India and Pakistan squared off in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last week, putting an end to any chance at peace between the two countries. Post the Uri army camp attack that saw 18 soldiers dying in the dastardly act, Pakistan's belligerence in refusing to take responsibility and loud statements at the UNGA have further overwhelmed any effort towards normalisation.
With it, the reported bonhomie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif seems to have also finally met its demise.
At the UNGA, Pakistan accused India of ignoring its overtures for peace and of committing human rights violations in what it called "occupied Kashmir".
India saw Pakistan once again refusing to acknowledge that terrorist organisations based in its territory were attacking Indian soil.
Auspicious beginnings
When Sharif, along with other SAARC leaders, arrived in Delhi, in May of 2014, for then Prime Minister-designate Modi's swearing in, the latter's move to invite them, especially Sharif, was lauded as a reset in India's engagement with its neighbours, especially Pakistan.
Before leaving Lahore for New Delhi, Sharif told reporters: "I'm carrying the message of peace and will discuss all matters with the Indian leadership. Dialogue process is the only way to resolve bilateral issues. Forging cordial relations with all neighbours, including India, is foremost priority of Pakistan."
Early signs
However, signs cropped up barely months later that the May 2014 overture on Modi's part has failed to generate the expected results.
In August 2014, India called off foreign secretary-level talks, after the Pakistan high commissioner met Hurriyat leaders on the eve of the discussions.
In November that year, Modi and Sharif didn’t hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Kathmandu either.
The next year did not start off well either, in March of 2015, the Islamabad High Court declared the detention orders of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack, as illegal and ordered his immediate release.
In response, the Ministry of External Affairs summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and lodged a strong protest.
As reported earlier, at a meeting of the UN sanctions committee in June of 2015, India had sought action against Pakistan for Lakhvi's release. China blocked the move on the grounds that insufficient information had been provided by India regarding the matter.
Ufa breakthrough
After more than a year, Modi and Sharif would hold a bilateral meeting in the Russian town of Ufa, in July of 2015.
Both leaders met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit being held in the town.
The resultant joint statement addressed the contentious issues of terrorism and an increase in cross-border ceasefire violations.
According to the joint statement, the two sides decided that their respective national security advisors, India’s A K Doval and Pakistan's Sartaj Aziz, would meet in New Delhi to “discuss all issues connected to terrorism”. Further, to de-escalate tensions at the border, an early meeting of the director generals of the Indian Border Security Force and the Pakistani Rangers would be held, followed by a meeting of the respective director generals of military operations. It was also decided that fishermen in each other's custody, along with their boats, would be released within 15 days.
Images captured prior to the meeting were also played up by the media, as both leaders cordially shook hands and displayed little animosity.
Ufa under fire
Three days after the Ufa talks, Aziz had issued a statement in Islamabad in which he asked for "more evidence and information" from India on the Mumbai attack case and asserted that talks cannot take place without Kashmir being on the agenda.
Indian officials at that time had sought to downplay Aziz's remarks and said that India would stick to the joint statement. Many had seen the remarks as a compulsion born of internal politics in Pakistan.
In fact, as reported earlier, Sharif was roundly criticised in Pakistan as the Ufa joint statement didn't mention the Kashmir dispute, instead focusing on terrorism as the key concern.
As an example, writing for Dawn, the former Pakistani ambassador to the US, India and China, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, described the Ufa agreement as a "disaster".
Ashraf wrote: "Has Ufa helped? As a starting point towards resumed dialogue, possibly. But the joint statement was an unnecessary disaster. It was the first prime minister-level joint statement in which Kashmir was not specifically mentioned...."
Then came the terrorist attack at Gurdaspur, Punjab, barely more than two weeks after the Ufa statement.
The Pakistani terrorists were killed by the special units of the Punjab Police after a fierce gun-battle, which lasted over 11 hours.
In late August, Pakistan called off the talks in Delhi between Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Aziz, after India made it clear that discussions on Kashmir and a meeting with separatists will not be acceptable to it.
Paris meeting and bringing the process back on line
By the end of November that year, Modi and Sharif would meet in Paris on the sidelines of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. This was the first time the two leaders would meet after the July Ufa meeting.
Modi and Sharif met briefly and the two leaders warmly shook hands before sitting down for a chat amidst frosty ties between the two neighbours.
The Paris meeting was followed by talks between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan in Bangkok, where they discussed terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir and a range of key bilateral issues apart from agreeing to carry forward the "constructive" engagement.
The Bangkok meeting was quickly followed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj travelling to Islamabad for a multilateral conference on Afghanistan, where she also held talks with Aziz.
Writing for the Business Standard, Archis Mohan explains how Swaraj's December 2015 Pakistan visit panned out: "Swaraj's meeting with Aziz led to the decision to resume the 'comprehensive bilateral dialogue'. Before returning, Swaraj met Sharif's daughter, Maryam. 'Tell your grandmother that I have kept my promise (on improving relations),' she told her."
Landing in Lahore
December 25, 2015, saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi drop in to wish Sharif on his birthday in Lahore and take part in the wedding of his granddaughter.
In what was a sudden and audacious development, Modi, who had been in Afghanistan on a visit, announced his visit over twitter. He dropped into Lahore on his way back to Delhi from Kabul. This sent diplomatic circles across the two countries scrambling to analyse the significance of this unscheduled stop by the Indian prime minister
Once again, it seemed that the bonhomie between Modi and Sharif was well and alive.
Pathankot attack
On January 2, 2016, the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, Punjab, was attacked by terrorists of the Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Seven Indian security personnel lost their lives in the attack and all six terrorists involved in the attack were also killed.
India would go on to allow a joint investigation team (JIT) from Pakistan to visit the airbase in Pathankot, to aid in the Pakistani investigation into the matter.
The JIT arrived in India on March 28 and visited Pathankot the next day. It returned to Pakistan on April 1.
A few days later, a Pakistani news paper quoted the JIT as saying that "the attack was a drama staged to malign Pakistan".
Enter Balochistan
The turning point in the relationship between Modi and Sharif came during Modi's Independence Day speech on August 15.
In his speech, Modi came out openly in support of "freedom" for Balochistan and "Pakistan occupied Kashmir".
"I want to speak a bit about the people in Balochistan, Gilgit, Baltistan, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," the prime minister said in his from the Red Fort.
Post-Uri
On Sunday, Prime Minister Modi spared no effort in his speech at Kozhikode, where he said that India would never forget the martyrdom of 18 of its soldiers in Uri and that the current government was willing to fight Pakistan's 1,000-year war.
His speech, in which he labelled Pakistan as the only country to which all terrorist attacks could be traced, is likely to have been the last gasp of the relationship Modi sought to build with Sharif.
