Over the last few weeks, a storm of opinion essays published in Nepal focused on the short lived but dangerous conflict between Pakistan and India.
Many observers and pundits highlighted the role that Nepal as the ongoing chair of the South Asia Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could play a role in mediating between the two parties.
Unfortunately it is not so simple and the reason is the fact that India firmly rejects any form of international mediation on the issue of Kashmir, the bone of contention between Delhi and Islamabad.
It is paramount to condemn in the most unequivocal ways the terrorist attack that killed dozens of innocent tourists, including one Nepali citizen, in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
Yet the two nations must return to the dialogue not only to solve for good the Kashmir conflict but also to restart the process of regional cooperation in the South Asian continent.
Only political will between India and Pakistan can bring definitive and lasting changes but, at the same time, I see two pathways that Nepal could undertake to nudge the process forward.
Both could be easily seen as long shot attempts but they are worthy to be considered.
One would not be linked to Kashmir nor to the Indian-Pakistan’s relationships while the other would try to give impetus to some sort of dialogue between these two nations.
The former would entail a government taking the initiative while the latter would instead be centered on the role of the civil society.
Let’s start with the first initiative that would involve the Government of Nepal but not as Chair of the SAARC.
The overarching aim would be more related to finding a creative way of reactivating some forms of cooperation in the region.
Any initiative undertaken under the purview of the SAARC would be easily vetoed by India, the leading nation in the region that since many years has stopped believing in the relevance of this regional organization.
But Nepal, as a sovereign and independent nation, could still do something to restart the process of regional cooperation but doing it outside the purview of the SAARC.
For example, Prime Minister Oli could convey a regional gathering in Kathmandu where all the Heads of Government of the region would be invited to talk about the future of the region.
Rather than focusing on the “governance” issues that would inevitably bring the “SAARC Question” back to the fore, priority could be given on tangible projects in terms of trade, connectivity, people to people relations and war against poverty.
This non-SAARC regional meeting, even if it would not bring in very tangible results, would still be important at least from the symbolic point of view.
A list of major undertakings could be discussed even if their implementation would only happen in terms of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy between and among nations not restrained by the geopolitics that have blocked SAARC for more than ten years.
This initiative would de facto freeze this association but it would not cause its death.
Hopefully one day, a renewed SAARC could be reactivated one day.
Now coming to the second pathway, this is only indirectly linked to Kashmir with its core focus more centered on reactivating some sort of dialogue among civil societies of Pakistan and India.
Here the idea: Can the Nepal civil society act as facilitator/broker of relationship between Indian and Pakistan civil society groups?
What occurred in Pahalgam and in the conflict stemming from this atrocious terrorist attack is not just a tragedy because of the many lives that were tragically lost on both sides.
It is the fact that the two countries have entered in a new phase of hyper confrontation that, any time, could trigger another conflict.
It is one thing to defend your own country and each side of the equation has the right of holding their own perspectives and positions.
It is understandable the outrage that Pahalgam has created throughout India, provoking very strong reactions even among the general public, including among the Muslim minority.
But as things stand now, each nation is creating its own daring narrative of the conflict and, unsurprisingly, the views expressed could not be far more apart from each other.
But this can also be dangerous because feelings can be manipulated and used for other purposes.
Everyone is focused on proclaiming victory over the adversary, projecting strengths through threats and humiliations after humiliations and even dare to contemplate the possibility of annihilating the “enemy”.
It is almost impossible to find anyone, either in India or Pakistan, who can challenge to propose a different narrative.
Any rational debate, trying to shift the core assumptions of the prevalent talking points and analyzing the past in unbiased fashion, will backfire.
This is the unfortunate situation now unfolding where people cannot feel safe nor free to take a more objective stand.
That’s why we must have a way forward that could re-establish first common sense among India and Pakistan even if through small steps that, ultimately, should lead to a renewed sense of amity between these two nations.
Everyone knows that there is no military solution to the Kashmir issue.
Yet, considering the ongoing high rhetoric between Delhi and Islamabad, each asserting its own views and each trying to silence and outmatch the other, it is, at the moment, impossible for the two nations to start any meaningful conversation.
Still, we have to start from somewhere and the proposition here is that the civil societies of both nations take the first step in a process of “normalization” of the relationships.
Considering the current “mine-field” for any ideas trying to broker a dialogue between the peoples of the two nations, members of the civil society of both nations are hampered from coming forward.
Still, do not you think that, on both sides, there are a lot of intellectuals and members of the civil society that think differently from the main narratives shaped by their own respective governments but cannot freely express their own views?
The official position, especially in Delhi is getting more and more uncompromising in terms of any sort of rapprochement with Islamabad.
That’s why we need the members of the civil society of Pakistan and India to start talking to each other and Nepal could offer the best platform for this conversation.
But it is going to be paramount for Nepal's civil society to take the lead even though the Nepal Government could, indirectly, support the initiative, especially financially.
Imagine some prominent representatives of Indian and Pakistan civil society coming together in a neutral territory to sketch out a way forward, to uphold the hope that peace and dialogue can never be brushed aside and that the current situation between Pakistan and India is simply dangerously unsustainable.
They could start focusing on people to people relationships in Kashmir but they should also open discussions beyond this intrinsically complex issue.
There won’t be any immediate or practical outcome out of this initiative but wouldn’t simply talking to each other be a worthy achievement?
Wouldn’t it be enough to have a group of citizens from both India and Pakistan, with the support of their Nepali counterpart, to just express their own determination to chart a different course for the future of their countries?
Nepal could play a much bigger role in the international arena and the current tensions in South Asia could offer a chance for Kathmandu to prove its relevance and creativity.
Because, in order to untangle the ongoing dangerous trajectory that the whole region is heading to, it is indispensable to come up with bold and out of the box ideas.
Reactivating the process of regional cooperation, even if through an unorthodox modality and trying to bring in some new fresh perspectives on the bilateral relations between Pakistan and India, are certainly interlinked to each other.
At the same time, we should not forget that both issues, regional cooperation and bilateral relationships between India and Pakistan, can be worked out in parallel and autonomously because the aspirations of millions of citizens in the region cannot be ignored forever.
Otherwise, with this shaky status quo remaining in place, South Asians would have too much to lose.