PM-designate Narendra Modi invites leaders from neighboring and other countries
PM-designate Modi's out-of-box action in inviting foreign leaders to his inauguration breaks the mold in Asia, where unlike in Latin America, such events are treated as purely domestic. That is all to the good, and shows both new thinking and a personal action style. Most welcome.
The objective of the Herat attack? To make it difficult for Pakistan's democratically-elected PM Nawaz Sharif to engage in real dialogue with Modi, and to sabotage that small new opening.
Link this with yesterday's attack on the Indian Consulate General at Herat, Afghanistan. A coincidence? Sure, no more than every other high-profile terrorist attack on India, be it the outrage against the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001 or the strike on Mumbai on 26 November 2008 -- each of these took place when new hope had emerged in India-Pakistan relations, thanks to initiative by the one side and meaningful response by the other. Each time, the larger aim of the attack was to poison the well, to provoke response from India that derailed the political relationship.
And yes, a couple of other noteworthy points. On each and every occasion, the action originated in Pakistan. And India was the target, as well as victim.
How many times does this sequence have to play out before independent and objective observers, Pakistan's friends, and the world community, says this is enough.
And at what stage does realization dawn in Pakistan that its insidious, pervasive, shadow power, the ISI and the military, are the greatest threat to their own country? Is democracy in Pakistan forever to be hostage to its autocratic, illegitimate shadow power?
PM-designate Modi's out-of-box action in inviting foreign leaders to his inauguration breaks the mold in Asia, where unlike in Latin America, such events are treated as purely domestic. That is all to the good, and shows both new thinking and a personal action style. Most welcome.
The objective of the Herat attack? To make it difficult for Pakistan's democratically-elected PM Nawaz Sharif to engage in real dialogue with Modi, and to sabotage that small new opening.
Link this with yesterday's attack on the Indian Consulate General at Herat, Afghanistan. A coincidence? Sure, no more than every other high-profile terrorist attack on India, be it the outrage against the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001 or the strike on Mumbai on 26 November 2008 -- each of these took place when new hope had emerged in India-Pakistan relations, thanks to initiative by the one side and meaningful response by the other. Each time, the larger aim of the attack was to poison the well, to provoke response from India that derailed the political relationship.
And yes, a couple of other noteworthy points. On each and every occasion, the action originated in Pakistan. And India was the target, as well as victim.
How many times does this sequence have to play out before independent and objective observers, Pakistan's friends, and the world community, says this is enough.
And at what stage does realization dawn in Pakistan that its insidious, pervasive, shadow power, the ISI and the military, are the greatest threat to their own country? Is democracy in Pakistan forever to be hostage to its autocratic, illegitimate shadow power?
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