Still at it
Hamid Karzai has clearly not lost his not so subtle touch when it comes to Pakistan. And since Modi is practically rolling out the red carpet for anybody who’ll hop on to his new Balochistan bandwagon, no prizes for guessing where Karzai is these days and what he’s saying. And, just for clarity, when he speaks now of Balochistan – ever since he became president, actually – his reference point is the Quetta Shura, not his refugee days much earlier when his family found sanctuary in the same city. Either way he’s chosen this particular point, and the glare of New Delhi, to express solidarity with the Baloch.
Modi’s maneuver of lining up the like-minded seems all the rage in that camp. There was more than enough overlap with Dhaka. And Kabul has never really needed much outside incentive anyway. It’d be a fair bet to expect someone knocking on the door in Tehran soon to milk the Chabahar deal a little more. Perhaps that explains our own foreign security advisor, and then the foreign secretary, shuttling to Tehran recently. Islamabad has not been known for preemptive diplomacy in a while, but it’s never too late to re-start.
While Modi’s means are crystal clear, it’s hard to see any novelty in the ends he’s trying to achieve. Sure, they can get together and point fingers at Islamabad all they want. But they are hardly trying a tactic they haven’t already employed; with dubious results at best. Eventually they will have to come to the table. And India’s own atrocities in Kashmir have brought that day closer. Sure, Pakistan could have found a more potent forum than OIC, but there is growing unease about Kashmir in the international community despite India’s posturing. The Modi maneuver is a delaying tactic at best.