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| Experts disapprove of Modi's policy vis-à-vis Pak, Kashmir | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 5: The BJP national executive on the first day of its two-day meeting at Bengaluru (Karnataka) adopted a resolution on the NDA Government's foreign policy vis-à-vis Pakistan and other countries. The meeting hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and approved of his government's policy, particularly towards Pakistan.
On Pakistan, the resolution said, "We have laid out a clear policy for building peaceful and friendly relations with Pakistan, predicated on an end to terrorism". "There can be no compromise with terrorism. There can't be any duplicity towards a problem that has become a regional crisis and is fast becoming an international nightmare," it said, adding that "All outstanding issues with Pakistan can be resolved through bilateral dialogue in an atmosphere free from terror and violence".
The resolution further said: "India has responded firmly and appropriately to provocations on the border and Line of Control and threats of infiltration and terrorism and the Prime Minister's message to his counterpart on the occasion of Pakistan Day has been unambiguous that 'all outstanding issues with Pakistan' can be resolved through bilateral dialogue in an atmosphere free from terror and violence…Visit of our Foreign Secretary to Pakistan (on March 3) as part of the SAARC Yatra is a clear message to our neighbour that Bharat will engage with it only on such terms that reflect its national security and strategic interests". BJP national spokesperson MJ Akbar whose views on Jammu and Kashmir are too well-known and who also spoke on the resolution said that "terror and talks cannot go together".
The people of Jammu and Kashmir, barring those who had been working against India or for Pakistan or for Jammu and Kashmir's independence, do not endorse what the resolution on the BJP's foreign policy towards Pakistan said. They also do not endorse the view that Prime Minister Modi has tackled Pakistan in the manner it should have been. They, in fact, believe that his foreign policy vis-à-vis Pakistan is much flawed as compared to his immediate predecessor Manmohan Singh. He has utterly failed to rein in Pakistan and secure the international border and Line of Control.
It needs to be underlined that the Modi's foreign policy towards Pakistan has been evoking negative response from many foreign policy experts and former Army Generals since months now. Take, for example, what noted strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney wrote in his "Risky call? Modi's Pak gambit could embolden sponsors of terror" (Hindustan Times, Feb 18, 2015). He, among other things, Wrote: "Consider this jarring paradox: Obama twice lectured a secular and diverse India in recent weeks on religious tolerance, only to get Modi to open talks with the Islamic republic where non-Sunni minorities are methodically being decimated. But what prompted Modi - who has projected a nimble, non-doctrinaire foreign policy with pragmatism as its trademark - to yield to pressure that he could have resisted? Modi is opening talks at a time when the Sharif government is very weak. Pakistan's power balance has titled decisively in favour of the other Sharif, who is the army chief, with the military savouring its triumphs in a series of bruising clashes with the government. The politically impotent Sharif is in no position to pursue rapprochement with India. Yet Modi has yielded ground even on the issue that led to the cancellation of the last round of talks, with his government conveying to Pakistan that its high commissioner in New Delhi can meet Hurriyat separatists on any occasion other than when official talks are about to begin. Modi's zigzag suggests that, despite his proactive diplomacy, he has yet to fully fix the broken Pakistan policy that he inherited from Manmohan Singh, whose 10-year tenure was marked by escalating cross-border terrorism even as Singh sought peace with Islamabad at any price".
Chellaney further wrote: "The Pakistani military, as its intense ceasefire violations since last summer have shown, is intent on shining an international spotlight on the Kashmir issue, not on altering the India-Pakistan dynamic through improved bilateral relations. Talks with India under a tottering civilian government that is in no position to compromise on any issue suit the generals' agenda. By reviving pairing with India, bilateral talks allow the country that risks failing to regain strategic relevance, including by highlighting the issue closely tied to its generals' extraordinary power and privilege - Kashmir. In this light, the renewed 'peace process' can produce more process but no peace. Fresh talks are unlikely to alter the calculus of the Pakistani establishment, which is determined to checkmate India's rise by whatever means - fair or foul - it deems advantageous. Terrorism is one favoured instrument".
Interestingly, the opinion poll, which was conducted by India Today Group and Cicero between March 1 and 14 to gauge the mood of the nation or to find what the nation thought about Prime Minister Modi and his policies, including foreign policy, also suggested that the people of the country had not approved of his foreign policy. The findings of the survey were broadcasted by Aaj Tak on the eve of the BJP national executive meet and the findings said that "only 34 per cent of 12161 the persons" who were interviewed by the survey teams across "19 states covering 260 assembly constituencies and 519 polling stations supported the Modi government's foreign policy". In other words, a whopping 66 per cent voted against his government's foreign policy and still the BJP national executive endorsed it.
Narendra Modi must review his foreign policy towards Pakistan, which is a rogue state and cannot be depended upon. He is already losing his popularity with each passing day. He must discard the coterie which has surrounded him failing which he would be mocked like the people of the country mocked Manmohan Singh, the Congress and the UPA government. |
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