Indian minister blames Pakistan for strained Indo-Pak ties

Claims India made many efforts to improve ties with Pakistan but received negative response every time

NEW YORK: Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, on Monday, blamed Pakistan, without naming it, for the strained ties between India and Pakistan — while ignoring New Delhi’s repeated refusal to engage in dialogue with Islamabad for resolving all outstanding issues between the two countries.

Jaitley, who was speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations — a United States (US) think tank — claimed that India has made many efforts to improve ties with Pakistan over the last few years but there has been a negative reaction every time.



“Now, we have this unprovoked gesture of a military court sentencing an Indian to death through a kangaroo court process,” Jaitley said referring to the convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Such acts, he continued, would not help the cause of peace in the region at all.

Jadhav, 46, was tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and was awarded the death sentence earlier in April. Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa later confirmed the death sentence.

Diplomatic observers here believed it was India who had undermined peace in South Asia by suspending dialogue with Pakistan and stalling the peace process.

“Rather than addressing what the Indian spy was doing, engaged as he was in activities to destabilise Pakistan, the Indian minister has tried to deflect attention from this and engaged in the usual obfuscation,” an expert on South Asia remarked.

Jaitley while responding to a question said, “As far as the region is concerned, if you look at Southeast Asia and South Asia in particular, I think India’s relationship with all our smaller neighbours has significantly improved. And today, whether it is Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, we have an excellent relationship. We have been cooperating with them. We have been a part of their economic growth stories and so on. And I think we have made a conscious effort in that direction”.



“Obviously, our problem comes from our western neighbour. And it is clear what is happening, that tensions do persist. And we do expect the international community, and particularly because most acts of terrorism across the world will have some footprint on the other as far as their neighbour is concerned. And if you have seen all our efforts over the last few years to normalise the relationship we have seen a reaction. The prime minister (Narendra Modi) went there, and it was immediately followed up by an attack in Pathankot Air Base in India, then an attack on our Uri military camp…”

Tension between Pakistan and India has already been high over Kashmir which had been divided between the two countries since the end of British rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in its entirety.

Following Jadhav’s death sentence, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said India would go “out of the way” to save him from death row.