India pushes trade agenda, Pak sings familiar tune

Pakistan’s strategy became all too evident with its envoy to the UN Maleeha Lodhi writing two letters to the Security Council, including the raising the issue about India’s fencing of the working boundary on the Line of Control.

According to sources in New Delhi, India was unlikely to “waste time responding to claims by a <g data-gr-id="64">globally-recognised</g> terrorist.” For public consumption, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup told reporters in United Nations that India would respond to these claims “at an appropriate time”. 

Swarup said, “I believe the second letter (dated September 9) is based on some kind of submission made by Salahuddin, who is a person we regard as a global terrorist. At the appropriate <g data-gr-id="126">time</g> we will respond to this.”

Realising a friendly global environment, given Pakistan’s rising reputation as a state harbouring terrorists, insiders in MEA claim that India was ready for a “very blunt” rebuttal to Pakistan’s allegations and even go to the extent of calling it a state sponsoring terrorism. 

A scathing editorial in leading Pak daily Dawn could come in handy for India to forcefully push the rebuttal. 

The editorial published in the newspaper’s Thursday edition said, “This country and its leadership need to ask themselves a hard question: Why does Pakistan continue to be such a hospitable place for extremist and militants elements that threaten the region and friendly countries further away?”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s summit with US president Barack Obama on coming Monday,  the third in two years, comes in the backdrop of a successful trade and strategic dialogue. Before Modi left for <g data-gr-id="130">US</g>, the government approved a $ 3 billion deal with Boeing for Apache and Chinook 

helicopters. 

No wonder financial sinews have given Modi the requisite room to flex  his diplomatic muscles.

Another important Pakistan daily The Nation in its editorial on Friday said that India and the United States were emerging as a “dynamic duo”, which was at the cost of Pakistan. 

The support to India’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN, the editorial says, is weighing high on the Pakistani establishment and intelligentsia. 

The growing perception on India as an important economic player, New Delhi strategists feel, should be complemented with a tough stand vis-à-vis the recalcitrant neighbour.

This is a marked departure from the stand taken by the Manmohan Singh or other governments in the past, which preferred keeping away from an aggressive and unpleasant engagement with Pakistan on international forums and pushed the line of “peaceful settlement” of  bilateral issues.