"The era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over"
This was the proclamation made by Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's External Affairs Minister, nearly a month ago. At the UN General Assembly, he once again spewed venom against Pakistan, harping on his favourite theme of Pakistan's involvement in terrorism. He told the world that this involvement "can only be measured in terms of radicalisation and its exports in the form of terrorism." He mocked Pakistan's economic woes, calling them 'karma', which he claimed the country had earned due to its anti-India policies.
He even had the audacity to address the UN General Assembly, stating: "Madam President, a nation coveting the land of others (Jammu and Kashmir) must be exposed and must be counted. We heard some bizarre assertions at this forum yesterday (by the Pakistani Prime Minister). So, let me make India's position perfectly clear: Pakistan's cross-border policy will never succeed, and it can have no expectation of impunity. On the contrary, actions will certainly have consequences. The issue to be resolved between us is now only the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan (Pakistani-administered Kashmir, including Gilgit Baltistan)."
Jaishankar's rhetoric seems to conveniently overlook a crucial detail: the very organisation he addressed, the United Nations, had passed a resolution calling for a plebiscite in Indian-administered Kashmir, a resolution that India itself sought in 1948. Not to mention the Tashkent Declaration of 1966, which acknowledged Kashmir as a disputed territory. The first paragraph of that declaration stresses the need to resolve tensions between India and Pakistan, explicitly mentioning Jammu and Kashmir. The 1972 Simla Agreement also emphasised the importance of resolving bilateral disputes—the primary issue being Kashmir. Yet, here we are, five decades later, with Jaishankar presenting a revisionist history at the UN, and chides this world forum right into its face.
As for the question of terrorism, the only 'proof' of Pakistan's involvement in the attacks on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and the Mumbai attacks in 2008, remain the reports contained in Indian media. Pakistan's offer for a joint investigation into these matters was outrightly dismissed, and no international investigators were allowed to probe India's allegations of Pakistan's involvement in these incidents. On the other hand, the list of Indian terror attacks in Pakistan is exhaustive, and it can fairly be argued that it is mounting daily.
While labelling Pakistan as a country that exports terrorism, Jaishankar conveniently forgets to mention that India operated several terror training centres along Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan and Iran, and that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan received arms and funding from the Indian government to carry out attacks in Pakistan, such as the 2007 terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, and the brutal 2014 attack on the Army Public School, which claimed the lives of hundreds of children. Jaishankar also omitted the fact that Indian money was used in Karachi to facilitate target killings, as well as how they "invested" in Pakistani politicians—by their own admission—in a bid to destabilise Pakistan and ruin its economy. A blatant proof of Indian terror activities on Pakistan soil was the statement of their Defence Minister Rajnath Singh saying that they have carried out extra-judicial killings in Pakistan. Lastly, it was India, which launched a direct airstrike into Pakistan, murdering trees.
If Jaishankar possesses even a grain of honesty, he should ask himself why India has no friends in the region. How does he explain this? This, in his own words, is called 'karma'!
Yet, standing at the UN podium, Jaishankar tried to portray India as innocent and Pakistan as radicalised. He cared little for the truth: that India has used its cronies in Pakistan's western neighbours to export radical Islam and terrorism into Pakistan. And moreover, how his own country is poisoned with the extremist ideology of Hindutva and xenophobia – thanks to the decade-old policies of his BJP, in collaboration with an extremist organisation, RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).
These are indisputable facts. But what Jaishankar tells the world are blatant lies.
Look at the neighbourhood design he has created: With China, he doesn't want to have 'normal' relations, and with Pakistan, of course, he doesn't want to have a dialogue. Very well! Practically all other neighbours—Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and now Bangladesh—have similar grievances: India interferes in their affairs, attempts to bully them, and undermines their sovereignty. If Jaishankar possesses even a grain of honesty, he should ask himself why India has no friends in the region. How does he explain this? This, in his own words, is called 'karma'!
If the beneficiary of a crime determines the culprit—the motive—then these simple questions should suffice to reveal the truth. Jaishankar should be prepared to answer these questions during his speech in Islamabad at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Conference, which he is expected to attend. How has the Indian cricket board benefitted from the 2007 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore? And what material gains has Pakistan achieved from the attacks on the Indian Parliament, the Mumbai attacks, or, more recently, the Pulwama attack—an incident that even their own governor, Satyapal Malik, admitted in an interview with Karan Thapar, was used by the Modi government to build an anti-Pakistan narrative for electoral gain.
The plain truth is that India has benefitted economically and politically from destabilising Pakistan's internal security in many ways. Pakistan has gained nothing from attacks on Indian soil. By all means, it was of their own making for their own internal and external political gains.
My concern is that Pakistan's authorities have failed to highlight India's suspected involvement in fostering unrest in Balochistan on international platforms. Indeed, even the arrest of a serving Indian naval officer, who admitted to orchestrating terror operations in Balochistan, was largely ignored on global forums. This speaks volumes about the lacklustre performance of Pakistan's successive governments and its Foreign Office in Islamabad. What is difficult to comprehend is the defensive position Pakistan's leadership has taken on global platforms, trying to explain that Islam is a peaceful religion, adopting an apologetic tone. This is not about Islam. It is about India's systematic policy of demonising Pakistan while first exporting radical ideas and terrorists into Pakistan through its proxies in Afghanistan, and then presenting Pakistan to the world as a terror state.
Now, as Jaishankar prepares to visit Islamabad after making the statements I quoted at the outset, the Pakistani government should deny him the opportunity to engage with the Pakistani media, treating him similarly to how Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto was treated during his visit to India. However, if they still choose to allow him media interaction, I am confident our journalists will be well-prepared to hold him accountable. This is Pakistan, and here, you cannot get away with unwarranted statements as easily as you can elsewhere in the world.