Bilawal's Goa visit 'no accomplishment'; "Immaturity brought setback", says Kanwal Sibal
New Delhi
Contrary to what is being touted, Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's Goa visit for SCO Ministers meet was 'no accomplishment', says former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal.
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He also said Bilawal displayed "immaturity" during the trip and this would further widen the gulf between two neighbours.
"How is participation and having bilateral meetings with SCO members “accomplishment”?
This is normal in such meetings. Real issue was a possible meeting with the Indian FM which didn’t
happen," Mr Sibal tweeted.
"With his immaturity he has set back ties with India further with his press interviews," SIbal maintained.
There is a school of thought, including overseas, that has tried to give a spin and sought to
describe Bilalwal Zardari's visit as some sort of achievement.
US scholar of South Asian affairs, Michael Kugelman of Wilson Center, Washington,
maintained --"It’s an accomplishment when expectations are as modest as they were".
In domestic politics, Bilawal has come under severe criticism both prior to his visit to
India and also later after the visit and SCO deliberations wherein India's External Affairs
Minister Dr S Jaishankar flayed him using strong words.
BJP leader Mahesh Jethmalani applauded Dr Jaishankar. "Salute our Hon’ble EAM
@DrSJaishankar for his scathing attack on terror sponsor Pakistan in the presence of its FM Bilawal Bhutto
at the SCO. On terrorism he (Jaishankar) said “Pakistan’s credibility is depleting even faster than its forex reserves”.
That brutally frank indictment will not only lift Indian hearts but will ring in eternity".
Meanwhile in an 'opinion' piece for NDTV website, Kanwal Sibal further stated, "India can live without a dialogue with
Pakistan, as Pakistan has already done the worst that it can do to India in recent years. Any new adventurism
by Pakistan against India, in the parlous condition that it is in, would be suicidal".
However, Myra MacDonald, who served for newsagency Reuters in Delhi, said: “I am sympathetic to India’s complaints
about terrorism emanating from Pakistan. And I am very dubious about CPEC. All that said, the choice of words
here seems unnecessarily undiplomatic and focused on a domestic audience".
Dr Jaishankar had described terorism as the 'mainstay' of Pakistan and insisted
that terrorism in all its forms, including cross-border terrorism, must be stopped -- a reference to Pakistan.
“We firmly believe that there can be no justification for terrorism and it must be stopped in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism," Dr Jaishankar has said at the SCO meet.
Talking to reporters, the External Affairs Minister also stated that Bilawal’s position was “found out and called out”.
The unusually harsh words were -- “As a promoter, justifier and I am sorry to say as a spokesperson of a terrorism
industry, which is the mainstay of Pakistan, his (Bilawal's) positions were called out and they were countered, including
at the SCO meeting itself”.
Former Prime Minister and PTI leader Imran Khan also blasted Bhutto Zardari for his India visit
and questioned what benefit was gained from the trip to India with the kind of language that the Indian foreign
minister used for Bilawal and his country.
“Pakistan is being humiliated in the world. How the Indian foreign minister’s behaviour was when Bilawal went to India is a basis for shame for all of us," Imran Khan said at a rally in Lahore.
Meanwhile in Mysuru during an interactive programme, Dr Jaishankar said he always plays a "good host"
with a "good guest".
“If you look at what his (Bilawal's) public utterances were outside in the press conference (In Goa)
and other interviews, he hasn’t spoken about the SCO at all. He has spoken about everything else
pertaining to India,” the minister said.
“As I said, other than the SCO he has spoken about everything else. So, what do I do as a host? If I have a
guest who is a good guest, I am a good host,” Dr Jaishankar added.
ends
"India can live without any dialogue with Pakistan," says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal
"Spouting propaganda on Indian soil that India is changing the demography in Kashmir, reducing the Muslims into a minority, with all Kashmiri leadership in jail, was deliberately provocative. Arguing that the amendment of Article 370 is a violation of UN resolutions and bilateral agreements with Pakistan is going to absurd lengths."
"The UN resolutions are defunct, Pakistan violated them by seeking to grab Kashmir by force in 1965, committing aggression again in 1971, actively promoting jihadi terrorism there, handing over parts of Pakistan Occupied J&K to China, with the CPEC project initiated a decade ago, by allowing the presence of PLA personnel in occupied territory, and so on.
The temporary Article 370 was not made part of our Constitution in consultation with Pakistan; its revision does not need consultation with Pakistan, especially as Pakistan never recognised its validity." -- Kanwal Sibal
(Kanwal Sibal was Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Turkey, Egypt, France and Russia, and Deputy Chief Of Mission in Washington.)
Jaishankar was 'harsh' to visitor Bilawal; but Pakistani guests never behave like one
(There was much criticism of the Pakistan FM’s visit to India for SCO event. At later stage everyone was stunned by Dr S Jaishankar's assertive remarks. The fact of the matter is this candid talk by New Delhi was overdue as Modi government has shunned the path of 'Lok kya kahenge' diplomacy.)
New Delhi
Spin doctors are on work in Pakistan and in social media. The refrain being India's External Affairs
Minister Dr S Jaishankar was 'more than impolite' to a visiting dignitary Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
and even called him a 'spokesman of terrorism industry'.
In India, we cherish 'Atithi Deva Bhava' -- the guest is a God'. Indian diplomats, Prime Ministers
and foreign ministers and others often went out of their way to entertain and please the guests
especially when they came from across the western border.
We can list a few 'hosts' -- who readily went out of the way(s). Indira Gandhi, who charmed by
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's bluff, allowed the turn the victory of Indian soldiers and their sacrifices turn into
a joke and defeat called the Sima Agreement.
Of everything, it was agreed to "Let Each Side Retain The Territory Captured By Each Other In The Jammu
and Kashmir" while withdrawing to its own side of the international border ( Clause 6, section 4 and 5 Simla Agreement).
Historians can easily recall with 'regrets' that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (incidentally grand pa of Bilawal) Bhutto came
to Simla as the 'head of a defeated nation with nothing to bargain'. As many as 93,000 Pakistani prisoners
were in India and tehsil of Shakargarh and a large tracts of desert were under Indian occupation.
Indira Gandhi played a good hostess and a bad PM. All that Pakistan conceded at Simla was that it will not use force
to solve Kashmir problem a promise that has never been kept.
The Simla Agreement was in effect a historical blunder of huge magnitude.
In more recent times Indian leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Dr Manmohan Singh and also Salman Khurshid (as External
Affairs Minister) played good hosts and 'good neighbours'. Dr Singh even legitimised Pakistan's unreasonable demand on
Baluchistan. Salman Khurshid hosted Pakistani guests even in a season when Indian soldiers were being
headed at the borders.
Vajpayee hosted Gen Pervez Musharraf at Agra only to be reciprocated with Musharraf's very unusual
breakfast meeting with Indian editors in 2001. Late Sushma Swaraj went 'out of the way' yet again in 2015 and
touched the feet of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's mother in a true gesture of a Hindu Indian.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi air-dashed to Lahore on December 25, 2015 to greet Sharif on his birthday.
The Indian gestures were reciprocated with Pathankot and later Uri.
By then that is the monsoon of 2016, New Delhi realised the folly of candle-light ceremonies and playing
a good neighbour and ideal host to its western neighbour. PM Modi pulled up the sleeves and ordered the
post-Uri Surgical Strike.
Pakistan was taken aback. But Indian 'sickular' establishment and select English media came to its aid.
And came the question, 'Where's the proof of the surgical strike'. Then in 2019 Pulwama terror attack
happened and Modi was firm enough again not to let the wrongdoers go unpunished and hence came
the Balakot aerial strike. This was more of a decisive message.
Subsequently in another misadventure they 'captured' India's fighter pilot and this resulted in a serious
warning from New Delhi. The then Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan 'sheepishly' released Capt
Abhimunya.
So what Bilawal got during his Goa sojourn was a result and culmination of Pakistan's audacity to
take Indian leadership for granted. Some of it of course has been due to inherent India's weaknesses.
In the name of Nehruvian soft policy for long New Delhi believed and practiced 'Lok Kya Kahenge' (What will
people say)' brand of diplomacy. It was more of a syndrome and a malady. But now a concentrated dose of
medicine has been found under the Modi regime. There are aerial strikes to destroy terror camps and there is a
foreign minister who knows how to put across the right message.
Under the man in reins of power in New Delhi now - the irreplaceable Narendra Modi - this is New India.
It knows how to be assertive when the seasons demand so.
Thus Dr Jaishankar was right when he said his Pakistani counterpart was 'treated' accordingly --- as per the protocol
vis-a-vis the SCO Foreign Ministers' Meet. But when it came to Bilawal's attempts to get into Musharraf's shoes and
try a 'media coup' in Goa and 'preach' about the same boat theory at the formal SCO gathering, Dr Jaishankar
was well prepared. He was articulate and perhaps more importantly -- he had all the backing of his boss,
that is the Prime Minister of India.
Analysts have reasons to believe that the bravado of Paksitani leaders come natural as it has been a nation
which has been perennially losing one battle after another -- both in battlefields and also at the diplomatic table.
Dr Jaishankar has a point when he says the 'credibility' of Pakistan is on decline faster than its forex reserves.
In typical Punjabi and Urdu -- many dub Pakistanis as a 'Haari hui kaum' (a community of big time and constant losers). Thus as Bilawal goes back to Islamabad and does indulge in 'soul searching' about the Goa trip; he would realise the blunders of some of his predecessors and Pakistani national leaders had to one day boomerang on them.
As your elders sow, so have you reaped, Mr Junior Bhutto! Never mind....there was nothing personal about it !
But lastly, Pakistan's foreign minister should be more 'serious' about the terror menace as personally he is a genuine
victim of the radical menace having lost his mother Benazir Bhutto to the terrorists' nefarious acts on December 27,
2007.
ends
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