While Pakistani high commissioner's meeting with Hurriyat leaders from Jammu & Kashmir was perhaps a well-calibrated provocative act, the Narendra Modi government's decision to call off the foreign secretary-level talks scheduled for August 25 is an overreaction. By cancelling the talks intended to carry forward the sense of bonhomie seen during the swearing-in ceremony of Modi to a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan, the Indian government has only wittingly or unwittingly fallen into the trap laid by those Pakistan-based elements determined to derail the process of improving Indo-Pak relations. And the happiest among these would undoubtedly be its top brass in the military establishment, for whom improving relations with India means the marginalisation of their role. The Indian establishment should ask itself: where do we go from here? Can we stop talking to our immediate neighbour forever ?
S K Choudhury Bangalore
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