Daily Times

There is no doubt that after having become the close defence partner of the US, India’s policy makers, intelligentsia and the media are boasting about and projecting India as a major world power. This is being done despite India’s major shortcomings, like its 70 percent population living below the poverty line, outstanding Jammu and Kashmir dispute with Pakistan, and the issue of Nagaland, Manipur and Punjab, who are struggling for their independence from India. Also, India’s former Prime Minister (PM) Manmohan Singh had declared Naxalismas the biggest internal security challenge.

Since 2014, India’s PM, Modi is also disturbing India’s internal harmony by making it a Hindu dominated state by trampling the rights of its minorities, especially the Muslim minority by not taking action against the Hindu mobs, who lynch those Muslims, who are seen rearing a cow. Modi’s declared Hindutva policy with his anti Pakistan vendetta that can help him to win future elections as well and his belligerent policies are dangerous for the Kashmiris, Indian Muslims, Pakistan and the smaller South Asian countries. Modi’s following policies are the indicators of India’s arrogance and belligerence.

India’s major step of ending the constitutional autonomy of the occupied state of Jammu and Kashmir, dividing the state into two union territories, named as Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, in clear violation of the UNSC resolutions, locking down the Kashmiris for the last 100 days, shows its arrogance. India also made Laddakh as a union territory despite the fact, that as per the Financial Times of 10 October 2019, India and China have yet to demarcate their shared border in Ladakh and the area is a military flashpoint between China and India.

Since 2014, India’s PM, Modi is also disturbing India’s internal harmony by making it a Hindu dominated state by trampling the rights of its minorities, especially the Muslim minority by not taking action against the Hindu mobs, who lynch those Muslims, who are seen rearing a cow

Although Pakistan and China, both have rejected India’s above discussed move, but this action indicates that India has played power politics with Pakistan, China, UNSC, and the people of Jammu and Kashmir, whom UNSC has given their right to self determination.

As per the Times of India dated 10 October 2019,India had said that it did not welcome comments on its internal matters. This was stated in response to the ‘Joint Press Release’ issued at the end of PM Imran’s visit to China on 9 October 2019, in which the Chinese leaders had reiterated that the Kashmir issue should be peacefully resolved based on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. India’s rebuttal came just one day before the Xi-Modi meetings scheduled on 11 and 12 October 2019 in India.

India’s opposition to the CPEC, its negative politics of moving the name of Pakistan from the FATF Grey list to the Black list, and the fact that Modi won the 2019 elections by making anti Pakistan speeches, also reflect that India wants to establish its hegemony over Pakistan despite the fact that Pakistan is a nuclear power.

India’s sponsoring of terrorism in South Asia, especially in Balochistan province of Pakistan by using the Afghan soil is well known. Recently the killing of the Asim Umarin Afghanistan, who belonged to India and was the Chief of India created Al-Qaeda in South Asia, and the terror attacks on Churches in Sri-Lanka during 2019, having their linkage in Indian Tamil Nadu, also confirm that India is an epicentre of terrorism in the region.

India’s above mentioned power politics indicates that Modi is more interested in making India an extremist Hindu dominated state, establishing India’s regional hegemony, and making India a world’s major military power by spending too much on acquiring modern weapon systems and on advancing its missiles, nuclear and space programmes, rather than focusing on the reduction of poverty by reviving India’s economy, which is already on a ” Free Fall”.

In view of the above, it appears that Modi led belligerent policy of India will continue to hurt Pakistan’s interests, as it has done in the case of occupied Jammu and Kashmir. This has happened despite Pakistan’s fierce protests and its intense and effective diplomatic campaign to garner world powers’ support on the issue, but except China, no world power has pressurized India to restore pre 5 August 2019 status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Therefore, to deter India from harming Pakistan’s interests in future in the way it has done in Kashmir, it is necessary that Pakistan should be able to create a threat of fighting a short but potent conventional war with India, with nuclear deterrence becoming operative only if the war is lengthened. Such a conventional war situation would likely attract the major powers’ intervention immediately after deployment of troops or India will do any mischief with Pakistan at the cost of fighting a war with it.

To be able to adopt such a policy, Pakistan should focus on its economic development based on attracting heavy foreign and domestic investments and carrying out intensive industrialization to become a resilient economic power.

The writer is a former Research Fellow of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Islamabad