Daily Times

It is quite unfortunate that despite understanding the disastrous impacts of the incessantly alarming rise in tension between Pakistan and India upon their economies on top of regional security, their political leadership have not yet deliberated upon any durable political solution. While the PML-N government has consistently reiterated invitations to New Delhi for a dialogue on the Kashmir dispute, the Indian leadership does not appear to be in a mood to resuscitate the exacerbating ties. In his inaugural address at an annual conference held in New Delhi on Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a swipe at Pakistan and clearly signalled a strategic standstill of his administration’s foreign policy. In lieu of extending peace prospects to soothe relations between the two countries, he negated any plan of doing so, further stressing that India will not hold talks with Pakistan as long as it continued to support terrorism.

The very fact that Pakistan’s nuclear-armed neighbour has repeatedly made veiled references to not only its alleged harbouring of extremists but also its biggest infrastructural breakthrough — the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor — calls for immediate attention. Although the mega project is being celebrated for its potential in enhancing trade across the region, India believes this investment as a unilateral attempt to “undermine (its) sovereignty.” This vehement opposition can be construed in the light of the CPEC’s significant impact upon India’s plans of engineering a similar strategic alliance with Iran and Afghanistan. No matter how strong its economic concerns in the wake of an ever-increasing Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean theatre may be, India should not have overlooked an equally extensive security challenge that these unresolved ties may pose. These extraordinary displays of heated rhetoric cannot achieve anything more than garnering some local audiences for the upcoming state-level elections. If venturing down a never-ending path of baseless accusations and verbal attacks is what Modi wanted, he has definitely succeeded. However, it would have greatly benefitted his administration had he tried wooing voters with sustainable financial policies and societal welfare in lieu of spelling out the old mock tale of regional hostility. After all, simmering tensions between the two countries would not hold much appeal for people — with the exception of hawks — awaiting economic development across the border. Even though Modi’s recent statement only serves as an extension of his committed non-cooperation with Pakistan, such policies would not fare well even for his own country. It should be remembered that his previous crusade to isolate Pakistan globally has already brought about the cancellation of the annual SAARC summit as well as a devastating breakdown of soft diplomacy in the form of crossfire between the two film industries. India has even gone to the extent of abrogating the decades-old Indus Water Treaty in its nationalist frenzy to undermine Pakistan. Nonetheless, had India considered how it would manage to retain international investors that its leadership seems to be assiduously obsessed with amid security fears, it might have thought better than facilitating the already widened conflict. As for Pakistan, India’s blossoming relationship with the US president-elect, Donald trump as well its intent to carve out a synergy with China should ring alarms bells for its leadership. While the country would highly benefit from economic gains if regional peace ensued, it can definitely not afford to lose two of its strategic allies to India. *