Islamabad, Oct 7

The Indian state, preparing for the 2014 general elections in the country, is all too easily provoked against Pakistan, observed a leading Pakistani daily Monday.

In an editorial, the Dawn Newspaper said it was a decades old tactic for both the neighbours to trade blame for violence against each other.

"It's a decades old tit-for-tat. India trots out allegations against Pakistan about violence in Kashmir; Pakistan returns the favour with allegations about Indian involvement in violence in Balochistan," it said.

"In late 2013, there is arguably little space left to go backwards in India-Pakistan relations without coming up against the war drums that beat all too enthusiastically, and recklessly, in certain quarters on both sides. 

"It is an unhappy situation in which the Indian polity, preparing for an election, is all too easily whipped up against Pakistan," the editorial said.

The editorial also said that verbal spat could adversely impact the peace efforts made by both the countries.

"When civilian officials who are supposed to be furthering the objective of peace start speaking in strident tones, the overall relationship between the two countries quickly goes backwards."

The newspaper criticised the comments by Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani on India's alleged interference in Balochistan, saying: "The foreign secretary should have remained cognisant of his political bosses' priorities while speaking to the media. 

"More generally, both sides have enough channels open to the other to eschew using the media as a conduit for messages. All that does, as Mr Jilani no doubt knows, is trigger a media circus and squeeze the space for the governments on both sides in which to try and keep things on an even keel," it said warning that "the bad old days of the 1980s and 1990s should be avoided at all cost". 

By:IANS