Sir — This refers to the report, “No talks, take a walk” (August 19). The Modi Government’s decision to cancel the Secretary level talks is timely and appreciated. But it is not enough.
On Pakistan’s involvement in aiding and abetting terrorism globally, then United States President George HW Bush was about to declare Pakistan a ‘terrorist state’ in the 1980s, but stopped due to the American long-term ‘strategic interests’. And, vexed with its covert nexus with the Al Qaeda and the Taliban, then US Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage is said to have threatened to “bomb Pakistan back to stone age”. Another Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, diagnosed Pakistan as the ‘world’s migraine’. Ms Hillary Clinton, until recently Secretary of State, noted that “Pakistan is rearing snakes in its backyard”.
Yet, the United States has continued to dole out billions of dollars as military-cum-civilian aid to Pakistan. This is hypocrisy. At least India must declare Pakistan a terrorist state.