Daily Times

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent claims of championing regional stability ring hollow against India’s decades-long record of derailing peace. The Foreign Office has rightly condemned his remarks as “misleading and one-sided,” but the world must confront the systemic sabotage of peace efforts initiated by Islamabad. From diplomacy to development, belligerence has turned South Asia into a graveyard of unrealized potential.

Consider the Kartarpur Corridor, unveiled in 2019 to grant Sikh pilgrims visa-free access to their holy shrine. Despite facilitating over 100,000 visits by 2023, New Delhi responded with bureaucratic hurdles; slashing pilgrim quotas, imposing exorbitant fees, and peddling unverified “security threats.” This goodwill collided with trademark suspicion, exposing an allergy to normalization.

Regional cooperation met a similar fate. In 2016, a boycott of the SAARC summit hosted here torpedoed a $500 billion economic integration plan (World Bank, 2017). Even at the 2024 SCO Summit, dialogue efforts on Kashmir and trade were rebuffed as the Indian Foreign Minister reduced engagement to hollow courtesies. During COVID-19, a 2020 offer to coordinate vaccine efforts was dismissed, prioritizing politics over public health.

The Line of Control (LoC) tells a grimmer tale. After the 2003 ceasefire reduced violence by 80%, militarization post-2016 triggered record breaches, 3,097 in 2020 alone. These violations killed 310 civilians and displaced 13,000 between 2014-21. A 2019 “pre-emptive strike” in Balakot, based on disputed intelligence, further inflamed tensions, despite calls for UN-monitored probes.

Water, a lifeline for 200 million, is similarly weaponized. The construction of illegal Kishanganga and Ratle dams, partially condemned by international courts, violates the Indus Waters Treaty. Modi’s 2019 threat to “stop every drop” epitomizes environmental terrorism, yet pleas for arbitration are ignored.

Even symbolic diplomacy is stifled. The return of captured pilot Abhinandan in 2019 was met with the annexation of Kashmir months later, violating UN resolutions. Bilateral trade stagnates at $2 billion annually (a fraction of its $37 billion potential) as economic strangulation persists.

Modi’s revisionism cannot erase this history. Hands extended for peace have been met with clenched fists. Until zero-sum delusions are abandoned, South Asia’s 40% living in poverty will pay the price. *