THE meeting of the Pakistani and Indian foreign secretaries achieved little in concrete terms and with differences still persisting on basic concepts such as SAARCPOL one should not expect too much from the meeting of the SAARC interior ministers either. At the bilateral secretary level meetings, despite an effort to put a positive face to the meeting, with little coming out in concrete terms, yet another meeting failed to proceed beyond handshakes and photo ops. Pakistan still seeks, and rightly so, to broaden the scope of the talks to include the core issue of Kashmir but India is obdurate on this point. As if to further drive home this stance, the Indian government promptly detained Kashmiri leaders Syed Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on the eve of the bilateral talks. Then, as before, the Indians continued to persist on putting cross-border terrorism on top of the agenda with a specific focus on the LeT and a demand that Pakistan take action on this count. Unfortunately, while Pakistan gave in to Indian pressure to discuss terrorism and both sides agreed to deny terrorists operational space, the Indian side did not relent to the Pakistani sides desire for a focus on Kashmir. If this is the Indian mood, then even if the composite dialogue is eventually resumed, little will flow from it in terms of conflict resolution. So the fact that the Indian foreign secretary, Ms Rao, agreed that there was a necessity to restart the composite dialogue does not promise much - especially since India is also talking of redrawing the agenda for this dialogue all over again. These secretary level talks will be followed by ministerial level talks but it seems it is this charade of talks that will define the Pakistan-India relationship in the near future. Whether one talks off the record to Pakistanis involved in the secretary-level talks or interior ministry personnel, there is a despondency over the hard line being adopted by the Indians who refuse to allow any space for Pakistans preferred agenda, even at the tactical level. It appears as if India is adopting a clear cut two-pronged approach towards Pakistan on core conflictual issues like Kashmir. On the one hand it is pressuring the Kashmiri leadership fighting for self determination in Indian Occupied Kashmir, by using brute force and terror; on the other hand, it is detracting Pakistan by talks and more talks simply for the sake of talks that are getting nowhere, so that the Kashmiri people lose hope in Pakistans commitment to their cause. This is a dangerous route for Pakistan to follow as it will eventually lead it to being trapped into an Indian agenda and its fulfilment. Already the foreign minister had made questionable remarks on the water issue and Indias contravention of the Indus Waters Treaty. Despite US pressure, it is time Pakistan stopped this present charade of talks that are merely making it go around in meaningless circles.