Pune Blast: Should India talk to Pakistan?

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

Valentine's Day is celebrated by lover around the world but a blast on it even in Pune has made sure that India and Pakistan will have to go a long way to fall in love with each other. Just when both the countries has seemed to have buried the skeleton on the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the blasts in Pune has threatened to jeopardise the entire process of resumption of talks between the two nuclear armed sub-continental giants.

It is too early to conclude a Pakistani hand behind the blasts in Pune but going by the terror activities that have taken place in India in the last couple of years the Pakistani angle cannot be overlooked. Behind every major terror strike in India there has been a fundamentalist group sponsored by the notorious Pakistani spy agency the ISI. The latest attack is being linked to Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba and it's offspring Indian Mujahideen.

Pakistan on it's part has condemned the bomb blast in Pune with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani hoping for a meaningful dialogue with India. But isn't this the Pakistani stand after every attack that takes place in India? Pakistan claims itself to be a victim of terror, but who was behind the creation of all these terrorists groups? Pakistan is paying price for it's own actions, why should India have to face burden of it's transgress?

New Delhi will be hurt as well as sceptical over the issue, hurt as it has proposed resumptions of talks and sceptical as talks cannot happen in the backdrop of blasts taking place. The Central Government for now is playing safe on the issue as it doesn't want the opposition get a chance to nail it ahead of the budget session of the Parliament. An incident like the Pune blast leaves India with no choice but to dis-engage any dialogue process with Pakistan.

Pakistan on it's part might blame stateless actors to have carried the blasts but post 26/11 it has done little to improve relationship with India. Although people like Hafeez Sayeed were taken into custody after the Mumbai attack, they were let free once the matter cooled down. This has left India with very little scope to start the peace process with Pakistan again. The questions which looms in everybody's mind is should India sit for talks with Pakistan?