Pakistan and India Share a Friendly Gesture, But Deep Fears Remain

India’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi, was sworn in during a spectacular ceremony in Delhi on Monday evening. One of the 4,000 guests in attendance was Pakistani PM, Nawaz Sharif, the first time a leader of either country, often tense neighbors, has ever attended such an event.

Sharif shook Modi’s hand and congratulated the Hindu nationalist on his victory. As former Indian PM, Manmohan Singh, turned down Sharif’s invitation to his inauguration last year, Sharif’s appearance is being largely seen as an indication of improving Indo-Pak relations in the future.

Yet many Pakistanis are horrified and saddened by Modi’s election win earlier this month. “Modi the leader was baptized in the blood of Gujarat, and no number of focus groups or model cities can change that,” Asad Rahim Khan, a young lawyer from Lahore, told VICE News.

“For a country as limitless as India, it’s a sad day. The Indian election was, in many ways, a revelation. It proved that, even in a democracy as restless and messy as India’s, a single man can win an overwhelming mandate, as long as his message is obvious enough,” Khan continued. “It points to changing priorities, where once a bigot like Modi would divide the country, a go-getter like him now brings India together.”

Pakistan also had an election last year and the rightwing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by Sharif, took 166 out of 272 National Assembly seats, easily forming a majority government. Then Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had a similar victory in India. The National Democratic Alliance, led by the BJP, claimed 336 out of 545 Lok Sabha (House of the People) seats. The BJP itself won 282 seats, meaning it doesn’t need coalition partners to govern.

Narendra Modi took his oath of office as India’s new prime minister at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday, in front of 4,000 guests, including the prime minister of Pakistan.

This resounding shift to the right in the subcontinent has many people on both sides of the border worried. For Khan, it is an indictment of the left.

“Pakistan’s coalition of liberal parties proved a train-wreck in government, paving the way for Sharif. Across the border, congress was exhausted: it had ruled too long, run out of ideas too fast, and was led by a 43-year-old (Rahul Gandhi) who seemed visibly bored,” he said.

Now there is speculation on what the relationship between Modi and Sharif will mean for relations between neighbors who have fought three major wars over the Kashmir region in the last 60 years.

“The Pakistani premier showed great haste in reaching out to the Indian prime minister when he got elected,” Shah Mahmood Qurieshi, former foreign minister of Pakistan, told VICE News. “With a new Indian government that has just been sworn in, it is premature to speculate on how relations could turn out. But what we cannot forget that we have unresolved border disputes and that traditionally, our relations have been hostile.”

Tasneem Aslam, a Pakistani foreign office spokeswoman, claimed that Pakistan is willing to forget what was said during Modi’s election campaign. Modi advocated a tough stance on Pakistan and attacks by Pakistan-based militants on India and mocked his predecessor of being too weak on the issue.

“For Pakistan, development through regional cooperation is the top priority,” said Aslam. “The government wants to focus on building economic ties, for which we need peace in the region.”

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“It all depends on the Indian government,” she continued. “We want to engage them on the Kashmir and the Siachen issues.” The military dispute over the Siachen glacier, believed to be the highest battleground on earth, started in 1984 until a ceasefire was called in 2003.

“We also want non-discriminatory trade with India and increase our people-to-people contact — and this is only possible if the Indian government cooperates with us in the same way we wish to cooperate with them,” Aslam continued.

She also shrugged off suggestions that Pakistan and India will face tension over influence in Afghanistan. “Pakistan has consistently held the stance that peace and stability in Afghanistan will affect security and stability in Pakistan. As long as Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty is not violated, we’ll want to continue strengthening the central Asian market through mutual cooperation.”

Aslam hinted at a central Asian trade corridor and said the government has a number of gas pipeline projects lined up.

Narendra Modi, the new prime minister of India, met with leaders of fellow South Asian countries today. All eyes, however, were on Modi’s meeting with Nawaz Sharif, the president of India’s regional rival Pakistan.

Zehra Hashmi, who is researching a PhD in anthropology at the University of Michigan, believes people-to-people contact is the only way forward.

“A lot of common history with India has been erased,” Hashmi said. “If you look at Lahore alone, you’ll notice how different the city is from the Lahore of 1947.”

“As far as Modi’s election is concerned, the saddest part is that even Muslims voted for him. I don’t say this because I am Pakistani. I say this because I see how this neoliberal vision of development, on both sides of the border, has become so important to the economically exhausted masses that they are willing to forget one of the biggest tragedies in Indian history.”

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Khan believes Pakistan no longer enjoys the international support it used to, on trade or territory.

“In the short run, Pakistan may have to put serious disputes on the backburner [such as Kashmir] and look to resolve the ones that are mutually irrational instead [such as a predicted water shortage for both countries in the future]. India, for its part, must aspire to bigger-hearted ambitions than the bully most neighbors have seen. And it won’t hurt Pakistani romantics if India improves the awful conditions of its 200 million Muslims,” he added.

Is there hope, then? For Chaudhary Najmuddin, a human rights activist, there is little. “It is apparent both governments have similar visions: pro-business, good governance, economic uplift,” he said.

Yet Najmuddin can’t see a resolution of the Kashmir dispute any time soon, “because that goes beyond the ambit of political governments. These are disputes of the armed forces of both sides and perhaps both leaders will prefer not to step on too many toes in their haste to be good friends.”

Yet Khan’s thoughts sum up what many Pakistanis are thinking. “A pairing of Sharif and Modi may break the impasse — these are two tough guys with fairly obvious views of the world. But the risk is greater than the reward: A revitalized right means an angrier audience.”