PM must bare his mind on Pakistan

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to recalibrate his Pakistan policy and backtrack on his hitherto tough line that talks and terror will not go together, then it's time he took the country into confidence. Sending a member of his cabinet to the Pakistan High Commission's National Day function was a diplomatic necessity. But sending him, in this case, the Union Minister of State for Environment, Prakash Javadekar to an event where it was known that he would share political space with the rabidly anti-Indian separatists, all of whom had been invited by the Pakistan High Commissioner to the event, does run contrary to the Modi government's publicly stated policy.

The question therefore, as Mr Modi prepares to meet his Pakistani counterpart at the Nuclear Security Summit in the US on March 31, is this — has the Prime Minister quietly moved the goalposts on Pakistan? The March meet will be his first interaction with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif since the Pathankot terror attack, ahead of Foreign Secretary talks that are now set for April. We cannot but agree with the Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq that the Indian PM must move beyond the Pathankot incident that was designed to sour the bonhomie generated by Mr Modi's surprise visit to Lahore on Mr Sharif's birthday.

The next steps call for caution. Allowing a Pakistan team of investigators into the area is aimed at Delhi, avoiding the charge that it is unreasonable.  Ignoring the opposition Congress which has, predictably, stepped up its criticism of Modi’s so-called double-speak will be harder. But Congress criticism notwithstanding, Lahore was a welcome departure from the past. 

The big takeaway is that now Lt. Gen (Retd.) Nasser Janjua warns his Indian counterpart NSA Ajit Doval over impending terror attacks. Clearly, the ugliness that marred India-Pakistan relations in 2014-15 when first, the Foreign Secretary level talks and then, Pakistan's National Security Adviser's visit to Delhi were called off over meetings with the Hurriyet leaders, must remain in the past.

The Hurriyet is clearly no longer a provocation, and they shouldn’t be. They are irrelevant to PM Modi's Jammu & Kashmir plan which remains focused on keeping the state within the Indian Union. The challenge before Modi is not only to rise above the opposition clamour but persuade Islamabad and the powerful Army, of the benefits of forging a consensus on how to cut off the hydra-headed monster of terror.

Prime Minister Modi understands the inefficacies of laying down red lines that cannot be enforced. Delhi's new Pakistan position remains unstated, unclear and ambiguous. It’s time the Prime Minister told us what he really thinks.