Why a phone call was taken so serious
We are witnessing yet another low in the India-Pakistan relationship especially after a phone call details between MirwaizUmerFarooq and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah MahmoodQureshi were made public. The phone call took place earlier this week.
India reacted to the phone call quite aggressively and wasted no time to summon the Pakistan envoy SohailMahmood in New Delhi and categorically told him that Qureshi’s telephonic conversation with separatist Kashmiri leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was a brazen attempt to subvert India’s unity and violate its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Ministry of External Affairs, in a hard hitting statement, said the Pakistan High Commissioner was even cautioned that persistence of such behaviour by Pakistan will have implications.
Though this is not for the first time that Pakistani leaders have telephoned separatists in Kashmir. This was a practice followed by the Pakistani leadership in the past as well. However, it was the first time in recent years that Islamabad put out a statement highlighting the talking points which New Delhi felt was a clear case of violation of the red lines.
Pakistan also reacted to the summoning of its envoy as its Foreign Secretary TehminaJanjua summoned Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria to lodge a protest over the summoning of Pakistan’s envoy.
Foreign Secretary Janjua made it clear to Bisaria that Pakistan would continue to extend support to the people of Kashmir.
The fresh war of words and the statement-counter-statement exercise once again brought to the fore the fact that how volatile the relations between the two arch rivals are and how things can take an ugly turn anytime.
Though the past three decades have witnessed wavering relations between the two countries, the ties strained after the attacks by militants in 2016 and India’s surgical strikes inside Pakistan territory. The ties further nose-dived in 2017 with no bilateral talks talking place between them.
All this is however, taking a toll on the people of Kashmir. The strained relations between the two arch rivals have a direct impact on the people of Kashmir who have been witnessing death and destruction for the past three decades now.
With both the countries not softening their respective stance the people of Kashmir have to live with the current atmosphere of uncertainty and hopelessness.
Improved relations between the two nations can generate a hope among the people of Kashmir that things may improve for them as a settlement may be arrived over Kashmir and people will also heave a sigh of relief.
In today’s world the dynamics of world politics is changing. India cannot emerge as a dominant force in south Asia till it does not act with generosity and give space to other smaller countries as well. India is seeing a bigger role for itself in south Asian politics and its role in Afghanistan. But all this cannot be turned into a reality till it improves its relations with its neighboring country Pakistan.
KV News
