15

May

BJP Uses  Mani Shankar’s video clip to create  an  issue out of nothing

image

Today’s Edition

New Delhi, 15 May 2024

Dr Satish Misra

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has once again found an easy prey in former Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar. He has targeted the the Congress by using over a month- old video clip in which the former Indian diplomat is heard saying that India should have a dialogue with Pakistan since both are nuclear weapons states.

 

The Prime Minister, who is known for his skill of distorting facts by taking thongs out of the context to create half- truths or total lies, has been going around the country telling gullible and innocent voters that the Congress wants dialogue with Islamabad out of fear.

Article at a Glance

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has used a month-old video clip of former Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar advocating for dialogue with Pakistan to accuse the Congress of wanting to talk to Islamabad out of fear.

However, Aiyar clarified that his remarks were taken out of context and distorted for ulterior purposes. He stated that his views on Pakistan align closely with two former Prime Ministers, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, who also advocated for dialogue with Pakistan.

Aiyar criticized the BJP for distorting his remarks and using it to create an issue where there is none. He also pointed out that Modi's decision to halt diplomatic dialogue with Pakistan has lasted for a dismal decade.

Aiyar urged for a democratic way forward, which includes a dialogue in India between the Nay-sayers and the Aye-sayers, and the resumption of dialogue with Pakistan. The article highlights how the ruling establishment has turned Aiyar's plea for dialogue into a political weapon for winning an electoral battle.

 

While Modi has obviously used Aiyar’s words for retrieving some ground from a losing electoral battle by bringing in Pakistan for giving a communal twist, we must check facts as to what the former Indian diplomat-turned Congress member had actually said.              

 

“That is the context in which I referred in the clip to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. It is a fact. Nuclear deterrence to prevent nuclear war arises out of dialogue between hostile nuclear powers, as shown by the US and Russia ever since the Soviet Union went nuclear. They have not childishly downgraded their diplomatic relations or refused to talk. What I said even in the clip was to point to Pakistan possessing a nuclear arsenal. My remarks have been distorted both by the BJP and the Indian Express to suggest that I was recommending dialogue out of fear. On the contrary, I have always recommended dialogue because we have the strength to be self-confident in such a dialogue and persist with discussion despite differences as the sensible way of finding a via media”, says Aiyar in an article in the Indian Express.

Declaring that to be targeted in the lead editorial by a newspaper “in the midst of a hard-fought election, for a video clip shot months ago in the context of my recent books” Aiyar said “I suppose, a personal honour.”

 

The former Union Minister has left none in doubt that the Congress has been quick to distance itself totally from his remarks though the purported clip has been dredged up by the BJP to give life to their faltering campaign, with the sole intention of creating an issue where there is none.

 

It is not hidden from anyone that Aiyar has done consistent advocacy of a structured dialogue with Pakistan. It would be a great disservice to truth if his rationale for a dialogue was compressed into a clip of a few seconds and then distorted for ulterior purposes.

 

“Although my personal views on Pakistan are my own, they accord in close measure with two other distinguished Prime Ministers of India — Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. Indeed, it was Vajpayeeji who posted me as India’s first consul-general to Karachi (1978-82) and did me the courtesy of invariably coming into the House when I spoke on Pakistan. On one occasion, he went so far as to wonder why I was never included by the Congress when Congress teams were sent to meet him on Pakistan. I applauded Vajpayeeji’s persistence in seeking dialogue with Pakistan despite Kargil, despite the attack on Parliament and despite the disappointment of the failed Agra summit”, the Indian diplomat who served in Pakistan underlines.

 

Even Manmohan Singh had admitted that he was building on Atalji’s initiative as he had carried forward the Vajpayee opening by creating a secret back channel on which three years of uninterrupted and uninterruptible dialogue actually led to an agreement in principle on the way forward in Kashmir and needed no more than the final signature of the two leaders.

Manmohan Singh was “scheduled to visit Pakistan in March 2007 but earlier that month, internal differences between the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Pakistan president led to the visit being postponed and eventually the president falling from power”, says Aiyar “Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the horrendous Mumbai terrorist attack on 26/11/08, not only did Manmohan Singh attempt a resumption of the dialogue with the new Pakistan PM but also continued to use diplomatic channels to keep in contact”, the former diplomat says.

 

I had welcomed PM Modi’s invitation to Nawaz Sharif and the decision to resume talks at the swearing-in of the new Indian PM in May 2014 but talks never took place because the new BJP PM objected to his BJP predecessor, Vajpayeeji, having encouraged Pakistani envoys to bring the Hurriyat into the loop, even to the extent of allowing a Hurriyat delegation to visit Pakistan, Aiyar points out. 

 

It was Modi’s sudden decision in the third week of August 2014 to not send the Foreign Secretary for talks in Islamabad because Pakistan’s Ambassador had the Hurriyat round to tea that marked the end of any diplomatic dialogue between India and Pakistan by the new government – a halt that has now lasted a dismal decade, he underscores in his piece. 

 

“True, as the editorial says, Modiji made a dramatic stop in Raiwind on December 25, 2015, but while that might have signaled a thaw, ever since a terrorist attack the following month, our relationship has been in the deep freezer” Aiyar points out.

 

There are many reasons why the dialogue should be resumed (as urged by all but one of our recent ambassadors to Pakistan) – and, equally, many reasons why it should not. But surely the democratic way forward is first a dialogue in India between the Nay-sayers and the Aye-sayers, and second, the resumption of a dialogue with our neighbour whom we cannot wish away, says much maligned, most misinterpreted and least understood Congress leader.  

 

It becomes more than evident that Aiyar’s plea for a dialogue has been turned into a devilish design by the ruling establishment led by the Prime Minister for winning an electoral battle.

---------------

  • Share:

About Us

We must explain to you how all seds this mistakens idea off denouncing pleasures and praising pain was born and I will give you a completed accounts..

Contact Us

Contact Info

  • 70, Gyan Khand- 4, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad. Uttar Pradesh.
  • +91-9810533682
  • info@mediamap.co.in
  • Week Days: 09.00 to 18.00 Sunday: Closed