Modi’s tough posturing
It seems those on whom we had been banking to intervene on our behalf have joined the other side
Either we are in a war-like mode if we are not fighting or in a state of high tension if we are in no-talking mood; very rarely do we speak in what is called friendly neighbourhood lingo. That has remained the state of India-Pakistan relations since independence. The advent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the scene has only sharpened India’s suspicion-filled hostility towards Pakistan that had defined our bilateral relations since the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.
Pakistan was already wary of Prime Minister Modi because of his alleged involvement in the massacre in Gujarat in 2002 when he was the state chief minister. He also talked tough against Pakistan during the general elections in India earlier this year. Ignoring all this and also risking criticism from Pakistan’s anti-India lobby, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif extended a hand of friendship, first by attending Prime Minister Modi’s inauguration and secondly by not meeting, while in New Delhi, the Hurriyat leadership only to be snubbed by his Indian counterpart, which he did by cancelling the scheduled foreign secretary-level talks just because Pakistan’s high commissioner in New Delhi had hosted a reception for the Hurriyat leadership.
It had been an age-old tradition that whenever in the Indian capital, the Pakistani leadership would meet the Hurriyat leaders and they would also be consulted before entering into formal bilateral dialogue with India, no matter at what level, gestures considered by India as interference in its internal affairs. Not meeting the Hurriyat leaders when in New Delhi was a significant concession extended by Prime Minister Sharif to Prime Minister Modi to put the latter at ease in dealing with Pakistan. But the Indian leader’s response was too belligerent, to say the least.
The Modi government is also seemingly making a bid to do away with Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which is a provision that makes it impossible for New Delhi to integrate the occupied territory into Indian dominion as long as the members of the Kashmir legislative assembly do not approve the move with a majority vote. Making matters even more intractable, India has begun unprovoked firing almost round-the-clock across the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary while insisting that it was Pakistan that had initiated the clashes. So much so that during his recent US visit, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif publicly accused India of intentionally hindering Pakistan’s efforts to clear its border areas with Afghanistan of all kinds of militants by keeping the Pakistan Army engaged at the LoC.
Indeed, the timing of the relentless violations of ceasefire at the LoC is too transparent to fool anyone. It had begun soon after an emboldened Indian prime minister returned from Washington after signing in late September a joint statement with US President Barack Obama, which among other things, affirmed the need “for joint and concerted efforts, including the dismantling of safe havens for terrorist and criminal networks, to disrupt all financial and tactical support for networks such as al Qaeda, Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Company, and the Haqqanis”. The two also reiterated their call for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai to justice. The joint statement also assured India of its phased entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group.
It seems those on whom we had been banking all these six decades to intervene on our behalf whenever the bully on the block would try to force our back to the wall have joined the other side. Therefore, perhaps the unusually aggressive posturing by Prime Minister Modi. Let us not go by the handshake at Kathmandu alone, however welcome that gesture may be in the current climate. Let us also not forget that we cannot change our neighbours. We are stuck with them for all times to come. So let us live with the problem with full equanimity while pursuing a peaceful settlement of all our bilateral problems with India, Modi or no Modi.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2014.
Pakistan was already wary of Prime Minister Modi because of his alleged involvement in the massacre in Gujarat in 2002 when he was the state chief minister. He also talked tough against Pakistan during the general elections in India earlier this year. Ignoring all this and also risking criticism from Pakistan’s anti-India lobby, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif extended a hand of friendship, first by attending Prime Minister Modi’s inauguration and secondly by not meeting, while in New Delhi, the Hurriyat leadership only to be snubbed by his Indian counterpart, which he did by cancelling the scheduled foreign secretary-level talks just because Pakistan’s high commissioner in New Delhi had hosted a reception for the Hurriyat leadership.
It had been an age-old tradition that whenever in the Indian capital, the Pakistani leadership would meet the Hurriyat leaders and they would also be consulted before entering into formal bilateral dialogue with India, no matter at what level, gestures considered by India as interference in its internal affairs. Not meeting the Hurriyat leaders when in New Delhi was a significant concession extended by Prime Minister Sharif to Prime Minister Modi to put the latter at ease in dealing with Pakistan. But the Indian leader’s response was too belligerent, to say the least.
The Modi government is also seemingly making a bid to do away with Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which is a provision that makes it impossible for New Delhi to integrate the occupied territory into Indian dominion as long as the members of the Kashmir legislative assembly do not approve the move with a majority vote. Making matters even more intractable, India has begun unprovoked firing almost round-the-clock across the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary while insisting that it was Pakistan that had initiated the clashes. So much so that during his recent US visit, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif publicly accused India of intentionally hindering Pakistan’s efforts to clear its border areas with Afghanistan of all kinds of militants by keeping the Pakistan Army engaged at the LoC.
Indeed, the timing of the relentless violations of ceasefire at the LoC is too transparent to fool anyone. It had begun soon after an emboldened Indian prime minister returned from Washington after signing in late September a joint statement with US President Barack Obama, which among other things, affirmed the need “for joint and concerted efforts, including the dismantling of safe havens for terrorist and criminal networks, to disrupt all financial and tactical support for networks such as al Qaeda, Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Company, and the Haqqanis”. The two also reiterated their call for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai to justice. The joint statement also assured India of its phased entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group.
It seems those on whom we had been banking all these six decades to intervene on our behalf whenever the bully on the block would try to force our back to the wall have joined the other side. Therefore, perhaps the unusually aggressive posturing by Prime Minister Modi. Let us not go by the handshake at Kathmandu alone, however welcome that gesture may be in the current climate. Let us also not forget that we cannot change our neighbours. We are stuck with them for all times to come. So let us live with the problem with full equanimity while pursuing a peaceful settlement of all our bilateral problems with India, Modi or no Modi.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2014.