When Narendra Modi invited Pakistan prime minister, Nawaz Sharif to his swearing in ceremony in May 2014, it was viewed as a well considered and radical to Pakistan expected to yield fruitful results, to both India and Pakistan. His honeymoon with Pakistan continued for quite some time boosting the expectation of lasting peace on the border , especially on the LOC .These expectations soared sky high, again, when Modi in an unprecedented move dashed to Lahore to join Nawaz Sharif on lunch on his birthnday on a telephone call made just a few hours before the party. And as if these moves were not enough , he even attended an engagement ceremony of a female relation of Sharif at his princely mansion. All these extra-dipolomatic efforts confirmed the belief that the bonhomie was the result of Modi's consistent master stroke(s) in diplomacy. The Personal Touch. It was not before long that the mist was cleared and it became obvious that what was perceived and relayed as a 'master stroke' was nothing more than a flip flop of an attention-seeking novice, who not only did not understand diplomacy but refused to realise his inadequacy. This flip flop could have been just laughed off, if it had not cost India both death and destruction.
This eye for the camera, embracing foreign dignatires kind of diplomacy conveys not what Modi has in his heart (Mann), but is misunderstood in the language of seasoned diplomacy. Modi’s embracing of Nawaz Sharif as a long lost cousin conveyed a wrong message to Pakistan and prompted her to attack us at Pathankot and Uri. The language of peace with our neighbour was replaced by the language of confrontation. Overnight, Modi 's Pak policy lay in a shambles .
His response to Pathankot and Uri was what he calls a 'surgical strike 'and for which he claims great credit , but which has caused India considerable loss .The only gain of the surgical strike was the killing of 18 terrorists or terrorists in training .But this killing of 18 did not frighten Pakistan into abandoning its policy of attacking and bleeding India .The result has been just the opposite. Since September 29,2016 (the day of surgical strike) there have been 83 violations at LOC and the international border in Jammu and 17 in Kashmir. Six soldiers and a dozen civilians have been killed. One hundred villages near the border have been evacuated displacing lackhs of their inhabitants who have been forced into misery, in the approaching cold, away from their home and hearth.There had been peace on the border for the last 13 years without a formal agreement due to a tacit understanding between the countries; due to seasoned diplomacy. Now, even the future of the relations between the neighbours is uncertain and might get worse with less than intelligent –stupid- men occupying sensitive postions in government. Parrikar, the Defence Minister, talks of using nuclear bombs, raising a bogey no sane man would raise. Meanwhile, our Jawans and civilians are being killed without a cause, purpose and goal just because of the flip flop of a prime minister, who just does not know the first principles of how the foreign policy of a nation is conducted.