12. Indian Initiatives
Indian Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee laid three pre-conditions for reopening talks with Pakistan: (1) regret for the Kargil intrusion; (2) an end to anti-India rhetorical campaigns; and (3) respect for earlier bilateral understandings. Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes declared that India was ready for talks with Pakistan if Pakistan reduced the level of shelling along the Line of Control. Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, responded, "if you lay down what appears to the other side to be preconditions, the assumptions of which are not accepted, ... the end result inevitably is going to be no talks at all. Is that what India wants?" An editorial in "The News" (Pakistan) described the demands as "baloney" and said that although "India is a big country, sometimes its leaders think small."
"PM lays three conditions for reopening talks with Pak."
"India ready for talks if Pak cuts tension along LoC: Fernandes"
"India told no talks if terms set"
"Vajpayee's terms"
Following Pakistan's rejection of India's preconditions, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth urged India to engage the Pakistani government in talks "sooner rather than later."
"US urges India to hold talks with Pakistan"
Indian analysis: Manoj Joshi (in Indiatimes) provides a chronology of Kashmir autonomy plans since 1950. K.K. Nayyar, Chairman of India's Forum for Strategic and Security Studies, argues that it would be wrong to engage in peace talks with a state that is exporting terrorism; in response, Inder Malhotra, a senior columnist, argues that "an inflexible refusal to communicate with a neighbor, especially when armed with nuclear weapons, can be sterile and even counterproductive."
"Kashmir: The maze of autonomy" Manoj Joshi
"Monday Debate: Should India talk to Pakistan?" K.K. Nayyar, Inder Malhotra