The Congress on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his quest for an image makeover as that of a world statesman has dismantled the entire matrix of our strategic and diplomatic advantages over Pakistan.
Slamming the Modi Government, the party while offering support to the ruling dispensation as a responsible Opposition to effect a course correction in the Pakistan policy, also said the “flip-flop” policy of Prime Minister has helped Pakistan reposition itself to “pivot” position from being a “pariah” in the global system and destroyed India’s strategic and diplomatic “advantages” over the neighbour.
“In the last two years, Pakistan has been able to reposition itself from being a pariah in the global system to now again being seen as a pivot for regional stability. The 4— nation talks on Afghanistan, the sale of F-16s are signs of how we have allowed the Pakistanis to reemerge within the global order,” party’s chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said at AICC briefing.
Keeping up the attack over Pakistan’s unilateral suspension of the peace process, he insisted that Government’s “flip-flop” policy has allowed Islamabad to set the agenda in the dialogue process.
Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, he said, “Narendra Modi has been run out by Pakistan in his dangerous quest for a non-existent run.” “As a responsible Opposition party and as Indians, we believe this moment allows us an opportunity to recalibrate, pause and reflect and course correct, and we would like to engage and offer support to the ruling dispensation if they deem it necessary,” said Surjewala.
He said that what is all the more tragic is the fact that efforts of previous Congress Governments in isolating Pakistan internationally as an “epicenter of terror” have been undone because of “unthought of and poorly deliberated” moves by Modi in engagement with Pakistan.
The party claimed that Modi Government’s Pakistan policy has confused its most ardent admirers and baffled security experts and diplomats alike. He lamented that the Prime Minister, ignoring all pleas, invited Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team to Pathankot to investigate the terror attack that originated from the Pakistani soil.
“Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah assured the nation that warm welcome is accorded to Pakistan’s JIT including the infamous ISI. Despite repeated warnings by Congress party, Government took a U-turn of making a distinction between State and non-State actors in Pakistan engaged in anti-India terror activities. Naturally, Pakistan’s JIT went back and preposterously blamed India for orchestrating the Pathankot terror attack itself,” the Congress spokesperson said.
He alleged that not only life is being breathed into a state recognised just a few years back as the epicentre of terror, but government is also permitting it to put Kashmir back on centrestage.