What Mr. Prasad is stating makes sense.  Even after five years of 26/11 happening, Pakistan is still unable to bring the culprits to books and looking for excuses to let them scot free.  Under these circumstances, it is a sheer waste of time and energy to engage with Pakistan on any of the issues.  India rather divert its attention to other more important issues facing the nation. As far as Pakistan's policy towards India is concerned, a civilian government in Islamabad is a handicapped body whose hands have been tied behind its back and legs have been crippled by the nexus of military/ISI of Pakistan.  As they say, tango dance can be performed by two persons with strong legs and satisfactory clapping with a great noise can be performed by two healthy hands.  In Pakistan's case, one should not expect any satisfactory tango dance and noisy clapping.  Hence, it is a waste of valuable resources and time to engage for any dialogues with Pakistan.  However, this writer wants to caution Mr. Prasad that if BJP is put on the throne next year, he should not forget the guidelines he is suggesting towards dealing with Pakistan.  Sometimes, it is easy to criticize other's policy than to implement so-called one's own better policy.   THIS WRITER WILL BE WATCHING THE TURN OUT OF ELECTION NEXT YEAR AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BJP'S POLICY TOWARDS PAKISTAN, IF THEY COME INTO POWER.

What Mr. Sharif says makes sense as far as improving relations with India is concerned.  However, to make the issuance of visa an open-ended situation does not make sense at all.  It will make militants' life very easy to enter into the Indian territory at their own free will which means more headache for the Indian authorities.  It appears that Mr. Sharif has learnt lot of lessons from his failed foreign policy of 1999 and, hence the change in his attitude towards India.  However, even though his intentions seem to be on the right track, but he has a lot of opposition from the militants and brain-washed groups in Pakistan who are adamant to oppose any kind of amelioration of relationship between the two countries.  In addition to these militants, one ought not to ignore the opposition faced by the civilian government in Islamabad from the Military/ISI nexus on this issue.  Mr. Sharif is very wrong in comparing India with Pakistan when he told a journalist of Times of India that "India and Pakistan are mirror images of each other."  They are not mirror images of each other, Mr. Sharif.  There is a big difference in the size, economy, freedom - called real democracy, respect of established institutions, education and peaceful atmosphere etc.  India, therefore, needs to be very careful about what Pakistani government is trying to do under the disguise of these peaceful statements.  India should not agree to any discussion till Pakistan eradicates terrorism from its territory, dismantle all militants' training center, hand-over Dawood Ibrahimn to the Indian government.  THIS IS THE RIGHT TIME FOR INDIA TO PLAY ITS CARDS RIGHT.

A newly developed political and diplomatic chess game in the Middle-East is getting very interesting.  Rift between the USA and Saudi Arabia over Syria and Iran issue, problem between Israel and Iran but supported by Saudi Arabia against the Iranian nuke policy as well as Saudi Arabia's overt tilt of taking its shopping cart for nuke and military equipment to Europe, China, Russia, India and Pakistan seems to have taken a 180 degree turn in the foreign and diplomatic posture of Saudi Arabia.  Of course, every country has the right to review its foreign policy from time to time, but this newly built military relationship between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan needs a very close probe in light of what it can entail in the long run.  In order to create a counter-weight against Iran, Saudi Arabia has evinced its interest to seek Pakistan's help to create a special military force of about 50,000 die-hard soldiers and also has an open order of buying nukes from the warehouse of Pakistan.  This is a clear sign of proliferation of nuke technology and availability of destructive weapon in the Middle-East.  This trade could be worth multi-billion dollars which means Pakistan will have access to more money to produce more nukes which in turn means more headache for India.  This relationship will also make the Pakistani Military/ISI nexus more powerful which eventually means a more fragile and helpless civilian government in Islamabad.  Since India has good relations with both Iran and Saudi Arabia, it can't do much to avoid this new nexus between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.  What it can do though is to keep its own guards up and be vigilant of the impending aftermath of this relationship.  INDIA NEEDS TO BE PROACTIVE.

It is a good idea to keep the dialogues with Pakistan on, but to expect that something fruitful will come out of it is a figmentation of imagination.  India has been trying to find a so-called peace and tranquility between the two nation since 1947 through all sorts of summit meetings, but no concrete results came out of those meetings.  It seems like Mr. Sharif has learnt a lesson from his failed policy of 1999 and, hence his effort to improve relations with India.  Unfortunately, the Military/ISI/Civilian government structure of 'who actually reports to who' or should one say 'who actually makes decisions' towards India has not changed.  What it means is that even today all decisions are based on what the Pakistani military/ISI nexus wants towards India.  Civilian government has no say at all in this matter.  Under the circumstances when Mr. Sharif's hands are tied behind his back, how can one expect him to make any decision and be able to deliver it too.  Also, a recent meeting between Mr. Sharif's National Security Advisor - Mr. Aziz- and separatist groups of Kashmir is a clear indication that Pakistan has a very soft heart for those who are the proponents of separation of Kashmir.  THE PRE-CONDITION HIGHLIGHTED BY MR. KHURSHID IS VERY IMPORTANT, BUT THIS WRITER WOULD LIKE TO ADD ONE MORE PRE-CONDITION WHICH IS THAT KASHMIR ISSUE WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED AT ALL.

Pakistani armed forces are showing the technology it possesses to shoot down a drone just to appease Mr. Sharif and may be other influential leaders in the country.  After reviewing the scenario set by the Pakistani Army and the Air Force authorities, Mr. Sharif made a statement rejecting the activities of drones claiming that they are creating a hindrance in the pursuit of dialogues with the militants.  Making public statements like this one or displaying an anti-drone technology is just a show business.  In reality, Pakistan is not in a position to do anything to stop the drones coming into its skies and killing the militants left and right.  Just think, if Pakistan out of frustration starts shooting down drones, is Pakistan ready to face the wrath of US military might?  Is Pakistan willing to forego the financial assistance it is receiving from the USA?  Can Pakistan afford to live without the diplomatic backing it is receiving from the USA on various issues?  I don't think leaders in Islamabad are so out of synch to pursue this mission.  Then, what is the purpose of displaying this anti-drone technology and pep-talk diplomatic statements - nothing at all?  Therefore, instead of blaming the parties outside of Pakistan, Mr. Sharif needs to concentrate his authorities on the inside authorities and make sure that they do not initiate any action, objectionable to his government,  in Pakistan and/or on LoC without his knowledge - he should not forget what happened when Mr. Musharraf was the General.  He ought to change the organizational chart of military, ISI and the government in Islamabad and this chart should specifically state that Military/ISI report to the leaders in Islamabad and not the other way around.

By extending an invitation to the separatist groups' chiefs in India, Pakistani government is clearly showing its true colors as respects to improving relations with India.  It shows the mentality as well as the dual policy of the Pakistani government.  On one hand, Mr. Sharif is making announcement in front of the whole world to start fresh with the dialogues to ameliorate relationship between the two countries while on the other hand, it is working with their puppets in India who are proponents of separatism on the Kashmir issue.  It shows that Mr. Sharif has no real desire to improve relationship and has not learnt any lessons from his previous failed policies of 1999 or should one say that he has no authority to work in that direction due to an influence from the military/ISI nexus.  Whatever the reason may be, the fact remains that he is working with his hands tied behind his back and he is walking with crippled legs to win this marathon.  Under that circumstance, how can anyone expect to achieve something both nations have been cherishing to accomplish? So, India ought not to waste time in arranging all these summit meetings to exchange dialogues with the hope to accomplish something worthwhile.  INDIA SHOULD LEAVE PAKISTAN ALONE AND LET IT MEET ITS OWN DESTRUCTIVE DESTINY TO THE FINISH.

It appears Pakistan is begging to resume talk with India on multiple issues.May be the new government in Islamabad wants to show to the world that it is making a sincere effort to improve relations with India.  However,this writer has a different opinion about Pak government.It wants to appease the local people and the politicians on one side, but on the other side, the government is blindfolded and not paying any attention to what the military/ISI nexus is doing on the LoC.  Pak military is violating ceasefire continuously and the Indian Jawans are killed on a regular basis for no reason.India has taken a right decision not to dwell on further dialogues unless (a) militancy is eliminated from the Pakistani territory (b) Mumbai attackers are punished severely; (c) Complete ceasefire on LoC.  Also,Kashmir issue is not to be discussed at all should be on this list too.If Pak agrees, then all other issues will be sorted out to mutual benefits.INDIA NEEDS TO BE FIRM THIS TIME