Manmohan Singh. PHOTO: AFP
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, erring on the side of caution, is unlikely to attend the inauguration ceremony of Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s soon-to-be third time prime minister.
The invitation, extended to Singh by Nawaz as a gesture of goodwill, has ostensibly been declined because India has not received a formal invitation yet. However, it seems that the real reason for not attending the ceremony is because India prefers to wait and see if Nawaz will deliver on India’s central concern of terrorism.
With India’s own elections not so far away, the ruling Congress government would not like to open another front for itself by accepting an offer to visit Pakistan when Islamabad has shown few signs of progress on addressing the threat of terrorism.
This is especially significant because despite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appearing divided on the trip, accepting the invitation could leave the Indian government open to a charges of a sell out prior to elections. The government would like to avoid making relations with Pakistan a factor in Indian domestic politics.
Although the government of India, in its first reaction, said that it was open to working with the government of Pakistan (leaving out the word elected), the Congress party revealed its bias in favour of the newly elected prime minister when the party’s general secretary M Afzal congratulated the people of Pakistan for participating in the democratic process in such large numbers.
This was as full-throated an endorsement of the elected government as is possible for the Congress to issue, without falling afoul of the BJP.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 15th, 2013.
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