Pakistan’s open acceptance that it is reaching out to segments of the Indian public who are opposed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “extremist policies” is a shocking admission of interference in India’s internal affairs.
That the foreign affairs adviser to the Pakistan government, Sartaj Aziz, had the gumption to say so as quoted in Pakistan’s leading newspaper ‘The Dawn’ is an index of how that country throws propriety to the winds.
That Aziz is set to visit India for the global conference on Afghanistan in Amritsar early next month which was being seen as a sign of a gradual healing of the confrontational stance with India, makes the statement even more outrageous.
One wonders whether Aziz’s statement was prompted by the Pakistan army which has a stake in keeping the bilateral pot boiling. In the same vein, Sartaj Aziz added: “Our (Pakistani) missions abroad, including in New Delhi, are making outreach efforts to emphasize the extremist Indian policies.”
Also read: Sartaj Aziz to attend Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar
Significantly, the Amritsar conference is expected to be addressed by Modi, among others. The statement made by Aziz, which is confrontational, is hardly conducive to an attempt to get the normalization process going.
The beheading of an Indian soldier in the Machil sector of Jammu and Kashmir by the Pakistanis a few days ago is a sign that the current Army chief, General Raheel Sharif, is not interested in de-escalation with India.
Raheel is on verge of retirement and wants to fuel the acrimony between the two nations even as he leaves. It is this spirit of escalation on Pakistan’s part that has provoked the Indian Army with political direction from the Modi government to adopt a tit for tat attitude.
The Army’s pounding of Pakistani posts in five sectors in retaliation of the brutal killing of our soldier was cast in that mould. If, as a result of Indian retaliation, the Pakistan Director-General of Military Operations was forced to call his Indian counterpart, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, over the phone for unscheduled talks, it is certainly a sign of the impact of the Indian move.
Clearly, the message going out from India is that while we are for de-escalation, the Pakistanis must close the terror tap for that to be a reality. As Northern Army Command Chief Lt Gen D S Hooda said India wants calm along the LoC but it cannot be a one-way street – the Pakistanis cannot have the cake and eat it too.
