Modi visit to Lahore | India Writes

From China to Laos: Why was Modi targeting Pakistan, ‘exporter of terror,’ in China and Laos?

September 9, 2016September 9, 2016 - by Manish Chand

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a new twist to Islamabad’s trade balance with the world, telling the international community with a straight face that Pakistan’s sole competitive advantage lies in exporting terror.
Mr Modi’s unstinting indictment of Pakistan at two back-to-back multilateral summits has taken many by surprise. His remarks at the G20 summit in China and East Asia Summit in Laos, singling out Pakistan’s “sponsorship and export of terror,” were part of an “offensive defence” strategy designed to put a belligerent Islamabad under stress.
Why has Mr Modi, who started his stint in power by inviting Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, along with other SAARC leaders, for his swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi, and followed it up with a surprise trip to Lahore in December last year, has turned up the heat on Islamabad? There is no point in indulging in esoteric speculation; one does not have to look far for reasons for Mr Modi’s vehement Pakistan-bashing. It’s clearly a sense of betrayal and promises not kept.
As he is not going to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) this year, PM Modi has leveraged the two multilateral summits to expose Pakistan before the international community and send a strong message to Islamabad that duplicity and deception will not work any longer. Read more…

Modi’s Pakistan Mantra: Speed, Secrecy and Sensitivity

December 26, 2015December 26, 2015 - by Manish Chand

Speed, Secrecy and Sensitivity. In the dying embers of an eventful year of action-packed diplomacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has staged a spectacular diplomatic blockbuster, kindling a new fire in perennially cold India-Pakistan relations and birthing a new template and vocabulary for this crucial relationship. The triple-S mantra was the net takeaway from PM Modi’s much-dissected surprise trip to Lahore on a Christmas day (a time of renewal and togetherness) to meet birthday boy Nawaz Sharif, and to usher in a new period of hope in the tortured and tortuous saga of India-Pakistan relations.
The Not-Talking is no longer the option, but Not Acting is also not an option in the long run! “That’s like a statesman. Padosi se aise hi rishte hone chahiyen (This is how it should be with neighbours),”as Sushma Swaraj said in a pithy one-liner. Expect surprises to cease surprising you in 2016! Welcome to the new normal future of India-Pakistan relations!

Nawaz Sharif’s surprise birthday gift: Modi in Lahore

December 25, 2015December 26, 2015 - by Manish Chand

It’s the mother of all surprises – Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to do what his predecessor could only dream about – breakfast in Kabul, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Delhi. In an intriguing tweet, Mr Modi announced that he will be stopping over in Lahore and meet Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his way back from Kabul.
Mr Modi’s sudden announcement of his trip to Lahore is in keeping with secretive out-of-the-box diplomacy that’s becoming his signature style vis-à-vis relations with Pakistan.