Can?t predict rose-tinted future for Indo-Pak: Nirupama Rao

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Tuesday said one should not predict a ?rose-tinted- future for Indo-Pak relations.

She was speaking at Keynote at Jamia Milia Islamia University?s Symposium on ?The Future of India-Pakistan Relations? here on Tuesday.

?I am not trying to predict a rose-tinted future for India-Pakistan relations. But surely, we can dare, perchance, to dream? To dream of a future where on both sides of the divide, our two countries will foster imaginative and creative approaches to tackling problems,? the differences over Jammu and Kashmir,? said Rao in her address.

She further said: ?Six decades after the tragedy and trauma of Partition, a host of issues continue to bedevil India-Pakistan relations and cast long shadows on bilateral ties. In the India-Pakistan discourse, we have literally eaten bitterness for the last sixty years and given the complexities of our ties, the task of improvement in ties is also Sisyphean.

?Some argue that we must induce a radical transformation of mindsets on both sides that view each other through the prism of an embittered past and entrenched hostility. This may be the conventional wisdom but is often not borne out by the behaviour of the multitudes of common people living on either side of the border. I say this in the realization that there are enough people in both countries that continue to be prisoners of the past.?

?And yet, how does one explain the warm and spontaneous applause of thousands of spectators at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on October 3 this year when the Pakistani contingent entered the stadium for the opening ceremony of the 19th Commonwealth Games in Delhi or the statements of support from the Pakistani sports authorities in the run up to the Games when others were vying with each other to write off the event before it had started?? said Rao.

Rao said, while it is apparent that the people of both countries desire to live in peace and amity, yet it takes only one act of mindless terrorism, like the barbaric attack on Mumbai in November 2008, to vitiate the atmosphere and poison public perception.?

Referring to her June-visit to Islamabad, Rao said: ??our efforts to bridge the trust deficit and pave the way for a serious and comprehensive dialogue were thwarted by a level of overreach by Pakistan that complicated the resumption of a sustained dialogue process.?

Rao reiterated that India?s advocacy of an incremental, graduated and forward-looking approach that seeks to address the deficit of trust is by no means an attempt to avoid tackling of the substantive differences that trouble relations with Pakistan.

The Foreign Secretary said: ?The issue of terrorism arising out of the sub-conventional conflict directed by Pakistan against India for over two decades now, cannot be ignored either. It is as substantive an issue as the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, or the issue of the Siachen Glacier.?

?The future of India-Pakistan relations, as I see it, must be predicated on such a win-win situation where everybody has a stake in furthering the cause of peace and good neighbourly relations. It is with this vision that our Prime Minister has repeatedly reached out to Pakistan.

?The recent devastating floods in Pakistan provided an opportunity for us to express our solidarity with the people of Pakistan in their hour of need.

?Our offer of $ 25 million was meant to alleviate the heart-wrenching suffering of the people and we are ready to do much more as a neighbour that shares a long border with Pakistan. Pakistan wished us to route our assistance through the United Nations. We were ready to oblige,? said Rao.