KARACHI: Lamenting India’s failure to put derailed bilateral relations back on track, experts said New Delhi’s decision to call off high-level talks, as proposed by Islamabad, was a result of “extreme pressure” faced by Indian PM Narendra Modi’s government ahead of the 2019 general elections.
“Modi is under extreme pressure and maybe he will win the upcoming elections by appeasing the extremists but he has lost his credibility as a world leader by negatively responding to a very positive Pakistani call,” Tajammul Altaf, former Ambassador of Pakistan to China and UK, said.
Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his disappointment at India’s decision to cancel the meeting — between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj — which was scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York this week.
PM Khan had initiated the idea for the meeting in a letter addressed to PM Modi on September 14. India had agreed to the meeting on Thursday but canceled a day later.
Terming India’s response as “arrogant and negative,” PM Khan took to Twitter to post a strongly-worded comment, wherein he said: “All my life I have come across small men occupying big offices who do not have the vision to see the larger picture,” he said.
Reasoning that PM Modi and his party used an anti-Pakistan agenda to strengthen their vote bank in the previous elections, Professor Tahir Malik, an academic and an analyst, blamed hard-liners and hawks within India for the talks being called off. “Modi and his party don’t want to lose their support base just months ahead of the general elections in India,” he said.
Malik said that while there is still a window of opportunity for bilateral talks to resume in the near future, any such proposal would be possible only after the upcoming elections.
Ruing that “this is not the first time that Modi has taken a U-turn,” Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, an Islamabad-based analyst and professor at the School of Politics and International Relations at Quaid-e-Azam University, said: “He made a surprise visit of Lahore in December 2015 but as soon as his plane landed in Delhi, his tone changed.”
Drawing attention to Modi’s failed campaign promises, ex-envoy Altaf said that he has nothing new to present to his voters. “The demonetization drive backfired badly and according to the RBI, 99.3% of the money is back,” Altaf said, adding that unemployment has also surged during Modi’s regime, leading to his extreme unpopularity at home.
In the letter written by PM Khan to Modi, he had said that Pakistan was ready to discuss terrorism and that talks on “trade, people-to-people contacts, religious tourism and humanitarian issues were also important.”
Jaspal, however, said he wasn’t very hopeful about the stalled dialogue resuming anytime soon. Reasoning that the cancelation of talks and the upcoming elections were just a cover for a bigger problem, he said that “our history with our neighbor shows that India has never wanted to see a stable Pakistan.”
India succumbing to ‘extreme pressure,’ experts say
India succumbing to ‘extreme pressure,’ experts say
- Cite upcoming elections as reason for cancelation of high-levels talks with Pakistan
- PM Khan blasts New Delhi for its “arrogant and negative” response
Cuba says a 5th person died after people on a Florida-flagged speedboat opened fire on soldiers
- Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops
- The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities
HAVANA: Cuba said a fifth person has died as a consequence of a fatal shootout last month involving a Florida-flagged speedboat that allegedly opened fire on soldiers in waters off the island nation’s north coast.
The island’s interior ministry said late Thursday in a statement that Roberto Álvarez Ávila died on March 4 as a result of his injuries. It added that the remaining injured detainees “continue to receive specialized medical care according to their health status.”
Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops. They said the passengers were armed Cubans living in the US who were trying to infiltrate the island and “unleash terrorism”. Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others.
“The statements made by the detainees themselves, together with a series of investigative procedures, reinforce the evidence against them,” the Cuban interior ministry said in its statement, adding that “new elements are being obtained that establish the involvement of other individuals based in the US”
Earlier this week, Cuba said it had filed terrorism charges against six suspects that were on the speedboat. The government unveiled items said to have been found on the boat, including a dozen high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.
Cuban authorities have provided few details about the shooting, but said the boat was roughly 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off the country’s north coast. They also provided the boat’s registration number, but The Associated Press was unable to readily verify the details because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.
The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities. The island’s economy was until recently largely kept economically afloat by Venezuela’s oil, which is now in doubt after a US military operation deposed then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
