New Delhi, July 1: Major General Dhruv C. Katoch (Retd) has responded critically to an open letter signed by 117 citizens of India and Pakistan, appealing to Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shahbaz Sharif to resume dialogue between the two nations. He emphasized that such letters have been written in the past but have rarely led to tangible outcomes.
In an interview, Major General Katoch highlighted that the signatories do not represent their respective governments. He stated, “There are individuals from both India and Pakistan involved. Some are retired figures from Pakistan, but there is no official representative from the Pakistani government, nor from the Indian government. These are members of civil society who have previously engaged in similar correspondence. They know that writing such open letters will not bring about any significant change, nor will Pakistan alter its current policies.”
Katoch questioned the effectiveness of the letter, stating that if Pakistan does not change its attitude and continues to support terrorism, as observed over the last 30-40 years, then what is the point of writing such a letter? He does not believe that the Indian government will pay much attention to it. He raised doubts about the intentions of the letter’s authors, suggesting that their aim may not be to promote peace. “They might be acting on someone else’s instructions, possibly influenced by the United States or another entity,” he remarked.
Regarding India-Pakistan relations, Major General Katoch asserted that for genuine peace to be established, Pakistan must take two crucial steps before any dialogue can begin. First, Pakistan must abandon its support for terrorism. Second, it must hand over known terrorists, such as Hafiz Saeed, to India. He emphasized that these steps are essential before any meaningful discussions can take place. Until then, any further dialogue would be pointless.
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