Modi’s gimmickry

Diplomacy or duplicity?

Strangely, Indian Prime Minister Modi trashes Pakistan across the continent and then, quite suddenly, calls his Pakistani counterpart ahead of the “blessed month” of Ramzan to reiterate the “message of peaceful, friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries”. Now, considering the continuously increasing potency of Modi’s –and some in his cabinet – anti-Pakistan rhetoric of late, the peace gesture is either a (rather quick) realisation of the futility of the gung-ho approach, or something quite different cloaked in a goodwill offer.

Even if the gesture – despite releasing fishermen, etc – is not what it seems, Modi’s policies are still creating unrest in pockets inside India, which will come to the fore if a measure of sanity is not introduced sooner rather than later. India, being the world’s largest democracy, is home to diverse schools of political and social thought, and there’s an extent to how far to the right BJP will be allowed to push the whole country. Delhi’s present conditions for talks with Pakistan – ruling out Hurriyet, removing Kashmir from the table, etc – indicate an extremist position which can only serve to increase tension and provoke a reaction that can be anything but good for the process of negotiations. And it serves to increase tension, rather than commerce, with the neighbour.

Modi will soon realise – if he has not already – that there is not much appetite for such a confrontation in large sections of the population on both sides. Soon he will be questioned about the promises he made during the election campaign. And his support bank will shrink if all he has to boast is having engineered an unprecedented low with Pakistan. Hopefully such sense of realism, rather than crafty politics, was behind the phone call. But such a stance will require more than phone calls and tweets. Modi will have to cut back on the embarrassing rhetoric and focus, instead, on really improving relations. And since the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, he will now have to go back on his recent adventurism and incorporate a loud change in his political outlook.