[DAWN] ONCE again, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government appears bent on raising the temperature in the India-Pakistan relationship.
 He wasn't talking to Pakistain. He was talking to Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistain. The 1971 version of the Pak govt handling of what started as an argument over use of the Bengali language and script was singularly oppressive. India's help to the Bangla rebels resulted in a humiliating defeat for the Paks. The Paks don't like to talk about it, but it's pretty understandable that India and Bangladesh would reminisce over old times.
Once again, it is difficult to discern any wisdom or even common sense in the Indian strategy. Having travelled to Bangladesh as part of his extensive outreach to the region — an outreach that increasingly looks like Mr Modi’s attempt to try and isolate Pakistan inside Saarc
| ...The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, established in 1985 for no apparent reason and consisting of seven countries plus, recently, Afghanistan. The seven founding nations are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, which must make group discussions on any topic very interesting, indeed. Saarc has a special poem as a placeholder until a proper anthem is devised. |
— the Indian prime minister rather bizarrely harkened back to the terrible events of some 45 years ago that led to the break-up of Pakistan and boasted about the Indian role in the creation of Bangladesh.
Since it was Indian help that tipped the scales it's entirely appropriate to talk about it. In private they probably talked about Pakistain's efforts to subvert both countries. In Bangla it's through the nasty Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP.
If that were not enough, Mr Modi decided to go on to attack present-day Pakistan in the same speech in what can only be described as the most un-prime-ministerial terms.
You think he might be cheesed at the way Pakistain keeps sending bad boyz across the Line of Control? It goes pretty much like clockwork: Pak firing across the border to provide cover for infiltrators. They blame the firing on India. Anywhere from three days to a week later there are three or four or a dozen hard boyz killed in a shootout at Kupwara or someplace like that. They don't even try to be subtle about it.
| In Pakistan the subtle is so overlain by fantastical Byzantine plotting that it quite disappears into the plain fabric somewhere underlying the embroidery. |
Extraordinarily, what the Indian leader had to say about Pakistan and the history of Bangladesh were not even the most provocative of statements emanating from Indian quarters in recent days. That rather dubious honour instead goes to a junior Indian minister who suggested that the Indian cross-border raid into Myanmar in response to an attack on Indian security forces in India’s northeast late last week could be repeated on the western, ie India-Pakistan border, if necessary.
Maybe the Indian army could fire across the LoC to provide cover for brainless cannon fodder to shoot up Muzzafargah or someplace like that.
| How would they be able to differentiate from natives shooting up Muzzafargah and points elsewhere for the usual variety of reasons Pakistanis shoot things up? |
Consider the breathtaking Indian arrogance on display here, and even naked war-mongering. Mr Modi’s comments in Dhaka hearken to a dark past for all sides — Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Especially Pakistain: Their military pretty much just rolled over, unconditional surrender, something like 90,000 PoWs. I'm sure the Indian public was just overjoyed to keep them in chapatis until they were finally repatriated.
To be sure, West Pakistan committed many errors and even crimes against what was then East Pakistan and there has never been any real introspection or accountability for that period here in present-day Pakistan.
It was swept under the national rug. If you don't think about it then it didn't happen.
| And according to "West Pakistani" society ladies, it only beautified the East Bangladeshis that so many babies were born in the year that followed with substantially lighter skin than adorned their mothers' husbands. So that was a kindness, you see. |
Yet, Pakistan and Bangladesh managed to go on to build ties that were reasonably stable and respectful and not even remotely comparable to the almost seven-decade-old effectively failed relationship between India and Pakistan.
Relations between Pak and India would probably be much better if the Paks didn't do stoopid stuff, like sending jihadis backed by regulars to start wars over disputed glaciated territory. Pak and India have managed to fight four wars in approximately 70 years, losing every one of them.
| It's those legendary Pakistani generals. They helped Jordan against Israel, too, as I recall. |
Is Mr Modi’s goal really to try and drive a wedge between Bangladesh and Pakistan? In any case, Pakistan’s political and diplomatic leadership have for a while now needed to urgently reach out to the Bangladeshi government of Prime Minister Hasina Wajed because of the attempt by that government to stoke tensions with Pakistan for domestic political reasons.
Howzat Fifth Column idea working out for yez?
An India bent on meddling with an already stand-offish government in place in Bangladesh can rapidly become a much sterner diplomatic test than the Pakistani state appears to have realised until now.
It doesn't help matters that the current PM's father (also Father of His Country) was bumped off by Pak agents. The much more recent grenade attack against her--I believe the corpse count was a couple dozen--probably didn't make her any happier with the Pak govt, even though their connection with HuJI was plausibly denied.
The flame-throwing from the Indian side has rather predictably riled politicians here. Instead of allowing the foreign and defence ministries to respond to the Indian provocations, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan decided to wade into the controversy created by Indian junior minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s allusion to cross-border raids inside Pakistan.
Come to think of it, there's a difference between a defense minister and a minister of the interior who's incapable of keeping Karachi from looking like 1970 Dhaka.
Meanwhile, the army leadership too has waded in with a strong statement against Indian interference yesterday. Perhaps the prime minister needs to convene his national security council to draw up a concerted, diplomatic response.
Table thumping is so much more satisfying as a response. |
[DAWN] Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked Pakistain to "walk away from terror" if it wants to establish amicable relations with India, The Indian Express reported.
[DAWN] Pakistain is exploring the possibility of creating a greater South Asian economic alliance to counter India’s controlling hold on the eight-member 
[The Diplomat] Prime Minister Narendra Modi's invitation to leaders of