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| Pak, BJP, separatists, Kashmiri parties on the same side | | PM Modi's Lahore visit | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday surprised the world in general and India in particular by visitingLahore for about 150 minutes, where he met with his Pakistani counterpart Mian Nawaz Sharif and discussed Indo-Pak relations and the ways to carry forward the process of comprehensive talks with Islamabad. The BJP, which has been pursing a very weak policy towards Pakistan and J&K, claimed that PM Modi took the decision to meet Pak PM at Kabul the same day after he congratulated Sharif on his birthday, but the main opposition party, the Congress, and other opposition parties rejected the claim. They said that it was a planned visit and PM Modi had been taking the nation for a ride and keeping it in the dark. The BJP claimed that Sharif asked Modi to visit Lahore and he accepted the invitation.
The Modi's visit evoked response on expected lines. Pakistan and Pakistani "mainstream" political parties, media, think tanks, foreign policy experts, former Army Generals, the BJP, Kashmiri parties like the PDP and the NC, separatists such as Mirwaiz, Shabir Shah and who not in Kashmir and CPI and CPI-M, which do not consider India a nation, commended the PMModi's visit with one voice. It was the Modi's positive gesture, they said, and expressed the hope that his visit will go a long way in addressing the issues, including the Kashmir issue, and forging a lasting peace in South Asia. Why not?
This was one part of the story and there was nothing new in it. For, the BJP did what it was expected to do. The BJP had already made its intentions known through the Agenda of Alliance that it, in collaboration with the PDP, devised and adopted ten months ago. The BJP had made a commitment that it will engage with Pakistan, facilitate talks with the Hurriyat leadership, unsettle the settled in J&K and even go beyond Article 370 to appease Kashmiri separatists and befriend Pakistan. What Pakistan, Kashmiri parties and separatists said was also not surprising. They knew that the BJP was on their side as far as its stand on Pakistan, J&K and terrorism was concerned and, hence, the resultant very positive response.
However, in India, not one but several parties and organizations, denounced the BJP and rejected its foreign policy vis-à-vis Pakistan as not in the national interest. Questioning Modi's "unscheduled" visit, Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said his engagement with Pakistan was "frivolous, unpredictable, marked by fits and starts and abrupt U-turns". He asked what assurances had the Prime Minister got on bringing back or punishing perpetrators of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, especially Lakhvi, and on dismantling terror syndicates in Pakistan acting against India.
Questioning the intent behind his visit, the Congress also rejected claims of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that the Prime Minister's move was "statesman-like" and claimed that the visit was "pre-arranged" by a businessman.
"The same industrialist who has business partnership with the ruling establishment in Pakistan was there for the last two days. This is out in the open," Sharma said, asking the Prime Minister to reveal the name of the businessman himself.
"We are very clear that the Prime Minister is there to promote only private business interests and not India's national interest which should be supreme. Diplomacy is serious, it must have gravitas and predictability. It cannot be frivolous, otherwise it will implode on Narendra Modi's face," he told reporters in New Delhi.
The Shiv Sena and VHP taunted the BJP leadership and questioned the PM Modi's visit to Lahore. They asked if the visitwill enable India to get hold of terrorists like Dawood Ibrahim, Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. They wondered whether the visitwill lead to effective action against cross-border terrorism as well as terror masterminds like Dawood Ibrahim, Hafiz Saeed and Lakhvi. "Will Dawood Ibrahim be handed over to India after today's meeting (between Modi and Sharif)? If this happens, we welcome thisvisit," Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut said in Mumbai in a sarcastic manner. VHP international working president Pravin Togadia said in a statement issued in Allahabad that "we hope that Modi's tour of Pakistan leads to effective action by the neighbouring country against terrorists operating from their soil." "Pakistan is also the land where 1993 Mumbai serial blasts accused and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim has been hiding for more than two decades. The neighboring country has so far been in a state of denial in this regard.
"We hope that our dashing and dynamic PM Modiji's intervention will bring about a radical change", Togadia said. What he said was nothing but a taunt.
Not only the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party and Janata Dal -United also questioned the intentions of the BJP and PM Modi. The AAP said "it was the BJP and Modi who were opposing talks with Pakistan under the pretext of terrorism". It questioned "whether terrorism has completely stopped as Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif has now become a likable figure toModi". "On the floor of Parliament, Sushma Swaraj said the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan would meet next year. Evidently, there was no preparation or planning for this visit. What was the necessity for it? A cricket match in Dubai, NSA-level talks in Bangkok and a birthday cake in Lahore, what kind of diplomacy is this," said JDU national spokesman KC Tyagi. "Since you are there, why don't you bring back Dawood Ibrahim and Hafiz Saeed with you," said Tyagi.
The point is that the visit of PM Modi to Lahore has rattled the nationalists across the nation. As for the nationalists in J&K, the visit has alarmed and frightened them and caused deep sense of insecurity among them. The reasons were obvious. |
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