The conducive atmosphere recently created between the two neighborly nations is very encouraging. At the same time, it also raises suspicion whether this is politically motivated to suit the interests of the two Prime Ministers to tackle their domestic problems as well as to convey a misleading signal to theInternational community. If both the Prime Ministers are sincere about what they want to resurrect (i.e. peace initiative), let them show their sincerity by enabling a few down-to earth but important activities such as people-to-people links, cultural exchanges, economic cooperation, civil aviation services, and sporting exchanges. Let us try bottom-up approach this time rather than straight away going for bureaucrats level and ministerial level bilateral discussions.

It is a pity that these two countries which were an integrated one nation prior to their Independence are paralyzed with regard to their mutual interactions because of one single issue i.e. Kashmir. Today, when the world countries are trying to merge the national boundaries through economic cooperations, and science and technology cooperation treaties, we turn our faces against each of other (India and Pakistan) because of Kashmir issue. There are many countries in the world which have problems between them but still they nurture bilateral ties. If one single issue can hijack our coexistence, what kind of democracy we run in our countries?

As mentioned above, avenues should be created without wasting anymore time to facilitate cooperation for cultural exchange, trade and commerce, transport, and sports. By keeping these activities going, the Kashmir issue can be softened and slowly over a period of time, we can find ways to amicably sort it out. India can set the end to Cross-border terrorism as the pre-condition for the talks however India must be flexible enough and prepared to discuss Kashmir issue. Similarly, Pakistan should not be obsessed with Kashmir and it should give importance to our other interactions before bringing up the Kashmir issue.

If the talks are going to be Kashmir-centric and if both the countries are inflexible on this issue as before, the upcoming dialogue would also fail and it would only serve the interests of the rulers in both the countries as this peace attempt would serve as a tool to better the political dominance of both the Prime Ministers and their parties in their countries.