Treading cautiously on the delicate issue of Pakistan, the Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday said that Minister of State (MoS) Gen (Rtd) VK Singh was sent to attend Pakistan National Day reception following a “considered decision,” taken by the Government “well in time.”
Trying to end the controversy surrounding VK Singh’s visit to Pakistan High Commission on Monday evening and his tweets thereafter, MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said that the decision to send the Minister was certainly not taken at the last minute.
“The MoS went there as Government representative based on a considered decision on our understanding on how we approach these things. He was not the first MoS to go nor will he be the last MoS. On such occasions, there is carefully calibrated approach that we follow and accordingly government nominates a person which is the MoS,” said Akbaruddin.
It is learnt that Singh’s name to attend the Monday function was conveyed by the MEA two days in advance to the Pakistan High commission. Singh too, was conveyed about this in advance. last year Secretary (East) represented the Government, and in the past Anand Sharma, D Purandeshwari, Praneet Kaur, Meira Kumar etc have attended the Pakistan National Day function at its embassy as Union Ministers. The Government also tried to downplay the fact that Singh attended the function where several of Kashmiri Separatists were also present.
On a question of Government’s shifting stand on the Pak envoy meeting Hurriyat leaders, MEA official said that Government reactions are based on “contextual specificities,” indicating that calling of talks in August for involving Hurriyat was based on the demand of situation then, and that India cannot oppose on such meetings always.
“What’s the big dealIJ For the past 20 years, the Hurriyat has been attending the celebrations. The Government nominates an official to go; it is a matter of diplomatic civility,” said VK Singh. While Akbaruddin explained that government’s stances should be assessed in terms of contextual specificity. “We carefully exam these situations and take responses based on our understanding of contextual situation including reciprocity of who had come to India on Republic Day function,” Akbaruddin said.
Interestingly, Pakistan had sent lt Gen (Rtd) Abdul Qadir Baluch, Federal minister for States and Frontiers, to attend India’s Republic Day functions where US President Barack Obama was the chief guest.
Government has been adopting a cautious approach on Pakistan of late. In fact, after abrupt cancellation of talks in August and increased hostility on the borders thereafter, PM Modi has made several attempts to re-open new channels of communication with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to soothe relations.
In the last seven months, Modi has reached out to Pakistan at least seven times in its moments of agony and happiness. Between September 2014 till March 2015, Modi made five telephone calls to Sharif, had a brief handshake with him on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit in Nepal , sent a letter through Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, besides sending the FS to Pakistan as part of his SAARC Yatra.
Be it offering help on floods in PoK (September 7), condemning terror attack in Peshawar school children (December 16), conveying birthday wishes to Sharif (December 25) or using cricket diplomacy as a tool to connect (February 13) and sending good wishes on Pakistan National Day (March 23), Modi has been using all opportunities to reach out to Pakistan.