NEW DELHI: This week, India harshly criticized Pakistan at the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers meeting, describing it as a “globally recognized promoter of state-sponsored terrorism” disguised as a victim, and dismissing the comments of the Pakistani Foreign Minister. Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, on Kashmir as an issue that was the “internal affair” of India.
The brusque dismissive and undiplomatic response has now become the model for India’s response to Pakistan’s repeated attempts to lift Kashmir, a position that has steadily solidified since J & K’s reorganization in August last year.
While the comment is not new, the clear signal for Islamabad is that it has no locus standi in Kashmir and is in fact in an illegal occupation of PoK. In harsh words, Vikas Swarup, MEA secretary, criticized Qureshi for raising the Kashmir issue, sarcastically noting that his reference to a South Asian nation that committed atrocities against its religious minorities seemed to better describe Pakistan, a country “than brought genocide to South Asia 49 years ago when he killed his own people (in former East Pakistan).
Later, Chancellor S Jaishankar used the Asia Society platform to assert that “Pakistan’s terrorism continues to be publicly recognized by its government as a policy they are justifying. For this reason, it is very difficult to maintain normal relationships with them.
His repetition that the reorganization of Kashmir is an “internal affair” quickly dispelled any prospect of a return to the old template of engagement with Pakistan, a message that New Delhi is emphatically conveying to the centers of power in the neighboring nation.
In fact, Pakistan PM Imran khanMoeed Yusuf of the NSA, laying out the parameters of future talks with India, showed how distant the two countries were with his suggestion that India wanted to talk about being fired out of hand. As far as India is concerned, the “status” of Kashmir, an article of faith for Pakistan, in the talks with India is now not a problem or at least not as Islamabad has seen it.
The eight-issue “composite” dialogue, or even the new “comprehensive” dialogue initiated by the late Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, is no longer applicable in the current context, particularly after the Modi government created the UTs of J&K and Ladakh. According to government sources, Pakistan will no longer have any locus standi to discuss this.
While New Delhi has always kept J&K as “an integral part” of India, there was an implicit accommodation of the Pakistani position in any compromise. That is already gone. Since August 5, 2019, India has certainly been under international pressure, but this has been on the issue of human rights in Kashmir, the arrest of political leaders, freedom of the press, 4G internet access. Article 370 has not been rejected, except for Pakistan and China.
“After the head of the PDP, Mehbooba Mufti, was released last week, we received fewer questions from the international community,” said a source. Jaishankar said in his comments this week that India’s external borders have not changed.
“As far as our neighbors are concerned, what we want to tell them is that this is something that is internal to us. After all, each country reserves the right to change its administrative jurisdictions. A country like China has also changed the borders of its provinces and I am sure that many other countries do. Neighbors are affected only if their outer boundaries change. That has not happened in this case, ”he said.
Pakistan has yet to understand the changes in engagement metrics, as was made clear during Yusuf’s interview with an Indian media channel. India is likely to push, diplomatically at least, for the return of the illegal Kashmir territory to Pakistan (and part of it ceded to China).
On the resolutions of the UN Security Council, India considers them unsuccessful now, because there is no longer a possibility of a plebiscite, after the constitutional action of August 5, 2019. During the last year, the Foreign Ministry has taken a tougher course and more belligerent position with Pakistan. India has continued to emphasize the domestic character of the actions in Kashmir.
This has now become accepted Indian positions, and this will form the basis of any future engagement with Pakistan, people familiar with the developments said.
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