THIS refers to the report ‘Modi urges ‘environment of trust’ for better ties’ (March 24), which carried the notion that the Indian prime minister “desires cordial relations with [the] people of Pakistan”. Such a move by Narendra Modi appears to be a rare peace gesture.

The government and its allies will claim it as their diplomatic triumph. This kind of euphoria, however, is an old phenomenon. Whenever India finds itself in trouble, or it has a sinister plan up its sleeve, it offers friendship. Sadly, our leaders readily accept the olive branch to give peace a chance.

I would like to recall the peace treaty signed by Pakistan with India on Jan 4, 2004, and the period till Nov 26, 2008, when we were in a state of euphoria, believing that all our issues would be resolved through dialogue.

There was peace along the Line of Control (LoC), but India had different plans. It fenced the whole LoC as the freedom movement in Kashmir subsided for a while. Once the Kashmir threat was over, which had become a bleeding wound for India, RAW launched the biggest ever covert operation from Afghanistan to bleed and destabilise Pakistan and to make it a ‘failed state’.

New Delhi launched cultural invasion in Pakistan, focussing on smaller provinces and the younger generation to popularise India as the most powerful state in the region by glorifying the Indian armed forces, and promoting Indian ‘secularism’ and ‘liberalism’ through movies, songs, dance and music.

It spread obscenity, demonised Islam and Muslims, made settled issues controversial, created divisions, and injected doubts and misgivings against the state’s premier institutions. More importantly, it presented a narrative portraying jihad as something having a negative connotation.

RAW made inroads with the help of people-to-people contacts and the so-called confidence-building measures (CBMs). New Delhi, in fact, was involved in false flag operations in India and the occupied valley, blaming Pakistan for all the terrorist acts. India was exposed when it conducted a false flag operation in Mumbai in November 2008, suspending the composite dialogue abruptly.

Since then there has been a constant aggressive posture against Pakistan. Today, India’s hostility under the RSS-driven Modi government is at its peak. Modi and his hardcore lieutenants have been threatening to deprive Pakistan of water and breaking it into four parts. A product of RSS, Modi nurtures pathological hatred for Muslims and Pakistan.

Historically, our leaders, both civil and military, have been offering friendship to India. But India, which has never quite digested the existence of Pakistan, has always rejected the peace gestures.

The Kashmir issue is the bone of contention, which India will never resolve. Talks were mere gimmick to buy time to change the demography of occupied Kashmir to include it into the Indian Union, which it did on Aug 5, 2019.

Since 2009, we have been bending over backwards to renew talks with India, but it has shown no interest. Not only it kept notching up bellicosity, but it also avoided talks on one pretext or the other. We never had the courage to declare India as the biggest terrorist state in the region that has issues with all the neighbouring countries.

India has never missed an opportunity to harm Pakistan. Conversely, Pakistan has never availed of the opportunities that it had, and whenever it did, the plans were executed poorly. Successive governments have remained under the illusion that their pacifist stance would make Pakistan safe.

India has been cleverly portraying itself as a victim and Pakistan as a state involved in terrorism. It succeeded in selling its false narrative to the world, while Pakistan made no effort to build a counter-narrative to put the record straight. All its acts were reactive and apologetic. We shall do better this time.

Syed Tahir Rashdi
Shahdadpur

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APROPOS the report ‘Modi urges ‘environment of trust’ for better ties’ (March 24), I wish to suggest to the prime minister and the Foreign Office not to fall for Narendra Modi’s false charm offensive.

This is the same evil strategy Israelis use against the Palestinians after incrementally changing ground realities and focus. India’s predictable next agenda move will likely be to target/isolate Pakistan’s side of Kashmir. We should never allow this.

If India does not reverse the status of occupied Kashmir that it changed last year, then there is no need to waste time in superfluous negotiations.

Imran Khan
San Jose, USA

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2021