NEW DELHI: India has suffered some major diplomatic losses during the India-Pakistan conflict and one of them was the ‘internationalisation of Kashmir and the efforts to hyphenate the two by other countries, said former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha.
In a conversation with this newspaper, Sinha said, “Our diplomacy has taken a hit as Pakistan has not been condemned by any countries” for sponsoring cross-border terrorism against India and being responsible for the killing of 26 innocents in the Pahalgam attack.
Sinha, who served as a minister in the Vajpayee government from 2002-2004, said during the Kargil war, the entire world supported India. Quoting an interview of Vajpayee, Sinha said that Vajpayee turned down an invitation by Washington during the Kargil war.
“Nobody ever told us that we were wrong, or that Pakistan was right, or that we should ask our troops to call off the operations. The most telling example is that the then US President Bill Clinton invited Vajpayee to Washington and to settle the issue as Nawaz Sharif was also there. But he refused to go,” said Sinha.
However, India stood isolated during the current conflict, he said. Despite strong opposition by India, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) allotted a loan package to Pakistan. “No other country stood with us even as we abstained from the meeting.”
Pakistan had the clear support of China throughout the conflict, he said. “Pakistan could not have used Chinese equipment without their permission. During that period, even Nepal was advising us to de-escalate. The fact of the matter is that Pakistan had the open support of Turkey and Azerbaijan,” he added.
While the US claims that it has averted a ‘nuclear war between the two countries by its effective intervention, Sinha said that it is a departure from the stated position taken by India since 1972.
Sinha asserted that by entering into a conditional ceasefire, India has raised the threshold. “Gola and golie rhymes very well, but that raises the threshold. It means that if they fire a bullet at us, we’ll fire a cannon at them. We raised the threshold for ourselves by this statement.”