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Why there are no takers for Pak PM’s latest talk offer in Modi government
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif uses age old nuke flashpoint theory to force India on the dialogue table. New Delhi is simply not interested.
It is a standard operating procedure for Washington based media to pose questions to the US State Department on issues that have nothing to do with American or its people but for force multiplier effect and to ensure that the matter is widely reported back in the country of “concern” through the wire agencies.
So whether it is the distressing communal flare-up in Nuh in Haryana or latest “carrot and nuclear stick” offer by beleaguered Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, comment was sought from US State department spokesman. It is another matter that neither the questioner in this case nor the answerer perhaps know where Nuh district is on the map of India.
It is part and process of present US global dominance that rather than ignoring, the US spokesman not only takes the question but also attempts to answer them. Will India or Chinese spokespersons take similar questions on gun or racial violence in the US or America’s need to dialogue with Venezuela or with Iran for that matter ? The other way of looking at it is that even though the US and India are very close partners, the rise of India will not be benign but will be contested through proxies of competitive powers with a larger agenda of showing India its place.
Take for example the perennial question put up by Left-Liberal media about the need for India-Pakistan to dialogue, which is posed ad nauseam to the US spokesman every time a Pakistan politician floats a proposal to seek dialogue with India. The latest came from PM Sharif while addressing the "Dust to Development" summit in Islamabad. He said: “ The neighbor has to understand that unless abnormalities are removed, normalcy cannot take place and the serious issues are understood and addressed through peaceful and meaningful discussions.” This done, PM Sharif then bowled a nuclear beamer yet again by floating the nuclear flashpoint theory and saying war was not an option. Although the US spokesman yet again advocated direct dialogue between the two adversarial neighbors, there is nothing new in Sharif’s offer as it is terrorism emanating from Pakistan that has shot and killed the prospect of dialogue between two sides. Even today, the Pakistani deep state is involved in instigating violence in India with Pakistan based terror groups and their radicalized associates ready for jihad within Jammu and Kashmir and hinterland all the way up to India’s North Eastern States.
Shehbaz Sharif proposal comes at a time when Pakistan Army Chief Gen Asim Munir commemorated the 96th anniversary of founding of Chinese PLA at Rawalpindi GHQ by saying that the two armies were brother in arms and committed to safeguarding collective interests. If that was not enough, the two countries this month have launched phase II of CPEC, which cuts through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) and China Occupied Shaksgam Valley in Ladakh. The commemoration of the founding anniversary of the PLA with fanfare in Rawalpindi clearly reveals the client status of Pakistan and the prospect of two front threat posed to India.
While decolonization of the Indian mind will take some time, the Modi government is quite clear that there can be no dialogue with Pakistan till such time terrorism, drugs and radicalization are being used as tools to hit India and its people. While the government has noted both questions on India and answers by western governments, it is the state government which is dealing with the law and order issue in Nuh to prevent any further spread or communal flare-up. Maybe External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be responding to these issues in kind at an appropriate time.
