MODI & PAKISTAN

The intention was good and the offer, probably genuine. But surely, Narendra Modi, the new Prime Minister, wouldn’t have bargained for a situation like this. In the process he had ignited the anti-Indian sentiments of the separatist Kashmiris and the Pakistanis.

The case of Pakistan is classic - a country tottering on economic collapse, shunted by countries of the world for being the sponsor of global terrorism, with huge political strife brewing internally, and the hawkish Army trying to wrest control, the situation gave the country the proverbial ‘last straw’.

Was it necessary or could the status quo have helped? We hear the BJP and the Congress wrestling it out on the media, plenty.

What are we going to do? Send the Pakistan High Commissioner back and face the same act by Pakistan in return and thereby improve the enmity into bigger scale?

One feels that The PM could have attempted the reconciliation move little later. For him there were so many other pressing matters for the country, from Policy Paralysis down, to focus upon. Knowing that the Indo-Pak relationship had never been good for more than six decades, in spite of the best attempts by many statesmen, including his own former PM; he could have aimed to attempt it a little later, after giving stability to the country.

So what is the suggestion? Now that we had decided not to talk at the Secretary level, drop the whole thing down. Do nothing. Don’t attempt anything for some time. And that includes the Hurriyat too.

The best punishment that you can meet out to someone, is to ignore him. And let it be.