If ever there was a moment that required everybody in the country to keep their eye on the greater good and act responsibly, which means not wash their dirty laundry in public in this particular regional and international setting, this is it. No denying that former national assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq should not have said what he said, and it is only partially understandable that the charged domestic political atmosphere is not only forcing the government to exploit his outburst but also forcing him to stand by it, yet things have already degenerated to the point that everybody must now make sure that this does not cause any more national embarrassment. And for that both government and opposition parties will have to understand that no matter how much they disagree with each other they will still have to fight their fights at home. Anybody who doesn’t expect India to take advantage of the slightest incident in Pakistan has just not been watching the news since the Modi administration took over. Lately, especially, India’s devastating economic collapse has made the government even more desperate to find something from the outside to turn everybody’s attention to. And as always it is Pakistan that is filling their prime time news cycle. Most people there seem to have already forgotten, for the time being at least, that their economy shrank a frightening 24 percent in the second quarter of 2020 and looks set for a seven percent decline by the end of the year; the worst growth figure since well before partition. It is unfortunate that Pakistan’s most senior politicians are helping Narendra Modi look good in front of his people by making Pakistan look bad. The foreign office has done the right thing, while rebutting New Delhi’s latest remarks, by reminding it that it’s time and energy are better spent trying to get some control over the falling economy. Already the government is feeling the heat because its rushed lockdown has cost the economy 150 million jobs so far and caused many hundred thousand small and medium sized businesses to simply shut down. The country’s Covid-positive cases are second only to the United States and the government has no clue what to do about the 40-50 percent collapse in consumption, investment, construction and manufacturing output since March. Pakistani’s political elite must not give the Indian government the escape hatch it needs to run away from all its domestic pressures. Our politicians must also realise, finally, that their supreme duty is to the state and its opponents, and they bring the whole country, including themselves, down when they throw mud at each other. *