Aggressive regional policy of India under Modi slammed

ISLAMABAD: Prof Zafar Nawaz Jaspal from the Quaid-i-Azam University has expressed concerns over the aggressive regional policy of India under Modi.

Dr Jaspal was speaking at a panel discussion on “India under Modi” organised here by the Institute of Regional Studies. He said the Indian regional policy formulation is inspired by the Mandalas concept enunciated by the Indian political philosopher Chankya by virtue of which a neighbouring country had to remain unfriendly by definition. He expressed his concern over the transformation of Indian nuclear posture towards Pakistan from deterrence to what he called “compelling”. He opined that India was now allied with the US and was thus no longer a non-aligned country.

Former diplomat Aziz Ahmed Khan called for consistency of Pakistan on Kashmir in line with UN Security Council resolutions. He said that despite aggressive regional posturing by India and draconian actions against the people of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan needed to stick to putting diplomatic pressure on the Indian government to resolve the dispute in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions. He called for engaging Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora and a diplomatic push on the Western capitals. While former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee represented the softer version of Hindutva, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was implementing the hardline version of it. He observed that Modi had never even expressed regret over the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat while he was the chief minister of the state. Alluding to the hardline Hindutva ideology of the current prime minister of India, Khan said while Modi proudly adorned headgears of various kinds in public, he was never seen wearing a Muslim skullcap, which spoke of his prejudice towards Muslims.

Khan opined that the farmers’ protest could force him to withdraw three controversial farm laws. He expressed his concern over the ongoing delimitation exercise in Occupied Kashmir. He held the view that it aimed at creating seven new constituencies in Jammu to offset the majority of Muslim constituencies in the state assembly.

Dr Raja Qaiser Ahmed, also from the QAU, said the revocation of Article 370 was unconstitutional because any change in the article had to be endorsed by the Assembly of the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir as per Indian constitution which no longer existed. He said the Modi government had hatched a plan to endorse the abrogation through an assembly elected after the demographic change in the state with migration of a large number of Hindus under new laws. This, he maintained, would provide constitutional cover to the unconstitutional move of the BJP government and until then the Supreme Court of India would keep dragging its feet on the petitions for reversing the revocation of the article. Nadeem Riyaz, president of IRS, said Pakistan needed not only to engage governments and diaspora but also the parliaments and think-tanks of Western countries.