News have just stuck the media channels and the media that the Indian Prime Minister in his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister on the sidelines of the SAARC Meet in Bhutan that the Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries of both countries would resume talks to solve outstanding issues. India once again is a mute but disgusted spectator of their Prime Minister succumbing to Pakistan appeasement. It has become a compulsive reflex with him. Pakistan has subtly exploited this vulnerability of the Indian Prime Minister in a psychological warfare campaign where the Pakistan Foreign Minister was articulating in Bhutan that the peace-loving Indian Prime Minister was being held back by opposition to his peace initiatives by opposition from within the Congress Party and also from within his own Government besides the strong Indian public opinion sentiment against a dialogue process.
It is more enraging that he Indian Prime Minister should agree to do so when right up to the last minute before the Prime Ministerial meet Pakistan Foreign Minister was making strident calls in Bhutan that the format of the infamous Sharam-al-Sheikh discussions should be the way forward. The Pakistan Foreign Minister seemed to be arrogantly fortified that Pakistan had United States backing and that the Indian Prime Minister could be pressurized by the United States to concede a dialogue. Virtually the whole of India with the exception of a handful of Pakistani apologists in India is against any dialogue with Pakistan as it is relentless in its anti-Indian activities ranging from terrorism to increased infiltration of Islamic Jihadis in Kashmir.
It needs to be recalled that after the Sharm-al Sheikh Meet last year of the Pakistan Prime Minister with the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh came under heavy attack from responsible quarters in India that India stood sold out and that Indian interests were not protected. The then Foreign Secretary was also severely castigated in the media for not advising the Indian Prime Minister against the Pakistani trap that he was falling into.
India cannot overlook the fact that the Indian Prime Minster has so far not cared to explain to the Indian public as to what strategic gains accrue to India by his repeated propensity to jump into the Pakistani trap of resumption of peace dialogues with Pakistan not caring even to extending the bare minimum of taking action against the Pakistani masterminds of Mumbai 26/11 strutting around nonchalantly on the streets of Lahore
It beats one’s imagination as to how the Indian Prime Minister takes for granted that Indian public opinion would willingly accept his personal foreign policy predilections when he does not carry any aura of personal charisma with the Indian public. Visually it is becoming more glaring that the Indian Prime Minister is seen more smiling when with United States and Pakistani leaders but hardly a smile is visuallyseen at events in India.
India’s foreign policy formulations should be removed from the precincts of the Prime Minister’s Office and restored to its institutionalized proprietorship of the Ministry of External Affairs where accountability for foreign policy failures can be laid when Indian foreign policy deviates from Indian national security interests and when severe disconnect surfaces between the political head and Indian public opinion.
