A new frost blankets Indo-Pak ties

It was a bizarre spectacle that is rarely seen on the global diplomatic stage, although diplomats are known for pulling rabbits out of the hat at any moment.
A new frost blankets Indo-Pak ties

It was a bizarre spectacle that is rarely seen on the global diplomatic stage, although diplomats are known for pulling rabbits out of the hat at any moment.The stage was the meeting of SAARC foreign ministers on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly jamboree in New York, on September 27. Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had just concluded her address and her Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was about to follow suit when the former got up and smilingly walked out of the room.

The calculated snub by the Indian external affairs minister was too obvious to be lost on anyone, though it was least expected of one charged to be the global face of India’s diplomatic corps. It is taken for granted in diplomatic conduct, as a basic nicety not to be dispensed with, that you listen to whatever the ‘other guy’ has to say, even if it happens to be ‘an enemy’ of yours.

That Swaraj couldn’t care less about the negative fallout of the insult she deliberately heaped on her Pakistani counterpart tells a lot about how the Modi government in India has chosen to respond to
the new political dispensation, led by premier Imran Khan, in Pakistan.

Imran, a novice to the arcane art of diplomacy, was not expected to make an early impact on the diplomatic front. However, he caught friends and foes alike by total surprise when he animated the long-moribund India-Pakistan bilateral front by telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi—in his maiden address to his people after winning their trust in the late July elections—that for every single step taken by India to break the logjam, his government would take two steps forward.

Diplomatic pundits were surprised at the maturity with which Pakistan’s new prime minister had suddenly infused life into what many were resigned to seeing as a dead horse. The Kaptan (the captain), as he’s fondly remembered by his fawning fans, was going to play on the front foot in foreign affairs, to the bewilderment of his detractors.

The Pakistani prime minister took time to respond to Modi’s routine message of felicitations. But when Imran did, he suggested to his Indian counterpart that the two foreign ministers of the two countries, who were going to be in New York for the United Nations General Assembly session, meet on the conclave’s sidelines. It was apparent that he was keen to end the impasse and take the ties with India to an active mode.

The initial Indian response was positive. A spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry in Delhi told the world that the Indian external affairs minister was ready to have a tete-a-tete with Qureshi in New York over lunch.

But then things changed. Within 24 hours, the same Indian spokesman reappeared on the stage to douse cold water over the Pakistani initiative. And he did so in a manner that presaged Swaraj’s solo act a few days later in New York. He used hard, incendiary language to rubbish the idea of a meeting between the two top diplomats of India and Pakistan. The Indian spokesman accused neighbour Pakistan of harbouring evil designs and didn’t spare Imran either, criticising him for his hidden agenda.

Optics have their own attention power in our digital age where a picture tells a million words. The Indian spokesman’s volte-face not only caught the world by surprise, because of the verbal vitriolics, but his choice of attire also told tales.

A day earlier, the Indian spokesman was garbed in a suit and tie, and he conveyed his nation’s concurrence in impeccable English. But when he shot down the Pakistani idea he donned the attire of Modi’s choice, and he spoke in Hindi, the language of Indian masses.

The Pakistani reaction to India’s sudden change of heart was initially one of shock and disbelief. How could one eat one’s words in less than 24 hours? What of all those protestations of peace from Indian leaders and the  commitment to live in peace and harmony with all its neighbours?

But an enforced reality-check didn’t take long to settle in with pundits who had been scratching their heads in utter dismay. Prime Minister Modi’s domestic agenda had overtaken the need to respond positively to neighbour Imran’s peace overture.

Pakistan’s prime minister has just come out of the woods and the sun is likely to keep shining for him for the next five years. He is not likely to face any elections in the immediate future. But the Indian prime minister must keep a sharp eye out on the elections to be held next year and the prospects do not seem all that rosy for him.

If non-partisan Indian pundits and analysts are to be believed, the 2019 elections don’t promise to be hunky-dory for the BJP government. Its populist base has slipped because many of its populist schemes haven’t delivered dividends to the masses.

To muddy the waters even more for the Union government, it is now faced with corruption and cronyism charges of the type that sounded the death knell for Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan. The Rafale aircraft saga is threatening to engulf the BJP as Bofors did former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Unfortunate as it may be, the infatuation of India’s ruling BJP with Hindutva is threatening to rob India and Pakistan of a great peace initiative. Political brinkmanship trumping statesmanship is myopic. Status quo politics is dangerous.

Karamatullah K Ghori
Former Pakistani diplomat
Email: K_K_ghori@hotmail.com

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