Cricket as desperate diplomacy

Pakistan continues to stonewall New Delhi’s repeated requests to make the masterminds of 26/11 terror attacks accountable. It still has to grant India the MFN status despite promising to do so. In return, India resumes cricketing ties with that country. It’s a pathetic situation

Sure, this is the season for fresh starts and best wishes, but taking it to a whole new level of mush and gooey-gooey goodness is the ongoing cricket series between India and Pakistan that marks the resumption of sporting love between the two countries. India had rightfully called off all ties with Pakistan after terrorists operating from the latter’s soil launched a heinous attack on Mumbai in November of 2008. But in an inexplicable surge of magnanimity, New Delhi chose to reverse its decision last July. And so it was on this past Christmas Day, that India’s men in blue faced on home ground their arch rivals in green after more than four years of a break.

But even as Dhoni’s boys face their Pakistani counterparts in Kolkata on Thursday, after being routed by them first in Bangalore and later in Chennai, one is forced to ask: What exactly is the occasion for this new-found love? Have all the perpetrators of 26/11 terror attack been brought to justice? Or, has the Pakistani establishment taken even a single step towards accelerating that process of justice, therefore, giving India the opportunity to close old wounds and have a sporting fiesta to celebrate the supposed ‘normalisation’ of relations?

Far from it. Pakistan continues to rub salt in our wounds, when not inflicting new ones. The disastrous visit by that country’s motormouth Interior Minister early last December is still fresh in public memory. During the course of his visit, Mr Rehman Malik not only reiterated his Government’s strategy of stonewalling the investigation into 26/11 — he dismissed Ajmal Kasab’s testimony to Indian agencies and fudged facts about the arrests of Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of that terror attack — but also had the gall to suggest that the Mumbai carnage was orchestrated by a member of an elite Indian intelligence unit.

So again, what does India stand to gain by resuming cricketing ties with Pakistan? Nothing significant, actually, apart from the Board of Control for Cricket in India getting another opportunity to make  another pile of money while the ruling political class gets to pretend that it has engineered some kind of a progress in bilateral relations. Interestingly, though, the scenario is not half as bleak on the other side of the border.

For one, the series is god-sent for the Pakistan Cricket Board and its empty coffers. Ever since the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan back in 2009, few countries have been willing to tour that country. In such a situation, an India-Pakistan series is exactly what the PCB needed to set its cash registers ringing. No wonder then that it has been “very persistent”, as BCCI spokesperson Rajiv Shukla put it, in resuming cricketing ties with India.

But there is more to the cricket story than mere commerce. A series such as this, particularly when framed within the narrative of friendship and goodwill, plays a huge part in deflecting popular and even political attention from the key issues that plague bilateral ties — for instance, the alleged involvement of Pakistani state actors in the planning and the execution of the 26/11 terror attacks and the Pakistani establishment’s refusal to investigate or even acknowledge them. Islamabad wants the people to forget that it had any role to play in the Mumbai attack that not only led to the loss of 166 innocent lives but also held this entire country hostage for three whole days. And from all available evidence, it seems to be working quite well, with both the domestic and the international Press gushing over the supposed thaw in bilateral relations.

In fact, it seems to have become a matter of state policy for Islamabad to actively seek such avenues of ‘cooperation’, for want of a better term. And, it is against this backdrop that the recent push for a significant increase in trade between India and Pakistan must be viewed.

In a recent article detailing key developments in the last year across the world that could affect global politics in this new year, the reputed Foreign Policy magazine puts “India and Pakistan trade away” right at the top of its list. According to the magazine, “The perennially feuding neighbours finally notched several key positive developments that had nothing to do with borders, nukes or terrorism. In short, both sides may be realising that political tension is bad for business.”

A quick reality check is in order here. Let us start with India and the Attari-Wagah check-point. As it had promised, New Delhi has already opened a huge customs depot and warehouse that can, according to the Associated Press, handle more than 600 trucks a day from Pakistan. Additionally, it has also liberalised the visa regime for Pakistan and even though the changes are not drastic, they are a definite political concession.

Moving on to Pakistan: First, the negative list that it was supposed to cancel in India’s favour. The deadline for that was December 15, 2012, but Islamabad has not moved an inch regarding that list. Second, the most favoured nation status. This is an old story, but still the deadline for Pakistan according India MFN status was December 31, 2012. That date has also come and gone, and nobody has cared to ask why India still has no MFN status from Pakistan.

Now, compare this to the fact that India accorded Pakistan MFN status back in 1996, and then add to the equation Pakistan’s obligation as a World Trade Organisation member to reciprocate the status on to India. Finally, also take into account the fact that Pakistan stands to gain far more from trade with India than the other way around. The writing is on the wall for our policy-makers here, but it seems that a certain segment of India has to be repeatedly poked in the eye before it can read it. 

(This article was published in the op-ed section of The Pioneer on January 3, 2013)