Post Pathankot Diplomacy: Govt Talks Tough but Will Pakistan Act?

Post Pathankot, have Indo-Pak dynamics changed? Intel handed over, but will Pak act, debates primetime TV.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart during his surprise visit to Lahore. (Photo: PTI)

The Pathankot terror attack has rudely broken the reverie created by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Pakistan.

Seven Indian security force personnel were killed in the attack while six terrorists were neutralised during the gun battle.

The prime time television news has been dominated by various aspects of the Pathankot incident, but the debate on NDTV pointed out the alternative theory that has been gaining attention in Pakistani public.

Pak’s Parallel Theory: India Faked Pathankot Attack

In a half an hour debate, NDTV’s Maya Mirchandani had Pakistan’s Air Marshal Abid Rao mirroring a Pakistani Twitter trend that claims that India faked the Pathankot attack.

On the day the two countries shared intel on the Pathankot attack, Air Marshal Rao pressed that if the information sent by India is true, they will take action against the terrorists.

<p>In Ufa, the two Prime Ministers agreed on a mechanism on reliable sharing of intelligence and evidence. Pakistan is now determined to eliminate the terrorists. If the evidence is correct, we will eliminate them.<br></p>

<b>Abid Rao, </b><b>Pakistan Air Marshal </b>

However, calling the decades-old incident of the hijack of an Air India flight as well to be a staged attempt at tarnishing Pakistan’s image, the Air Marshal claimed that “nobody in the world would believe India.”

The investigative agencies probing the incident have claimed that the two people held responsible for the hijack – Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar – have also been found to be the minds behind the Pathankot attack.

Those identified by Indian agencies are Azhar, Rauf, Ashfaq and Kashim, top government sources have said.

Also read on The Quint: India Shares Pathankot Evidence, Names of JeM Handlers With Pak.

Rubbishing Air Marshal Rao’s claims, Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain of the Indian Army pointed out that Pakistan only needs to agree that there were slips in security from both the countries.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, even though disagreed with the Pakistani representative, took the opportunity to point a finger at the ruling party.

<p>Prima facie you should show us actionable deliverance. We must continue to heap international embarrassment at least on a section of Pakistan.</p>

<b>Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress</b>

The stance of all the alleged stakeholders in the Pathankot attack were distinct, but everyone agreed that the Islamabad talks should continue.

However, there is a possibility of another NSA-level talk before the Indian Foreign Secretary goes to Islamabad for peace talks on 15-16 January.

India vs Pakistan being its pet subject, the discussion on Times Now was led with #PakMustAct.

On the panel tonight was Gaurav Bhatia from the Samajwadi Party, who was to challenge the government on behalf of the UPA. Defending the BJP government was the party’s star spokesperson Sambit Patra.

Also on the panel were Sushil Pandit, a communication strategist and activist, and Ajay Darshan Behara, professor at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university. But they barely got a chance to speak.

The discussion started with Arnab Goswami questioning the statements made by MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup on Thursday evening while briefing the media.

Goswami opened the debate to Sambit Patra and Gaurav Bhatia. The two accused each others’ coalition governments of going soft on Pakistan when it came to tackling terror.

Gaurav Bhatia accused the NDA government of being clueless about its foreign policy. He said,

<p>I think everyone is let down. At one point, the home minister knew less than the home secretary. Why are you jeopardising national security?</p>

Sambit responded rather boastfully, “Who is jeopardising it? This is one of the most successful operations. We successfully saved all the assets”.

At this point Times Now’s Mahroof Raza stepped in. He simply stated that there was no need to engage Pakistan in yesterday, today, tomorrow (in terms of when appropriate action will be taken). They will not change the narrative.

To this, Sambit Patra said, one cannot take that decision yet. “We’ll have to wait for the next step.”

At this point though, Gaurav Bhatia conveniently said that the government must clearly state that talks will not take place if there are daily “aberrations like this”.

It is convenient because “terror and talks cannot go hand in hand” has been the BJP’s tagline.

Sambit Patra defended the government’s stand, saying vital information was passed on to Pakistan within days by the NDA, while the UPA took months to pass on intel about the 26/11 Mumbai attackers.

Arnab and Co, however, cornered Sambit Patra upon the definition of “prompt and decisive action”.

Sambit tried to defend himself saying, “prompt means quickly. It obviously means quick action”, but was interrupted by Bhatia.

At this point, Sambit hit back at Bhatia, saying he will not engage with members from a party “that is sympathetic towards terrorists”.

Sambit said, “Gaurav, go and control communal tension in Uttar Pradesh and then talk diplomacy”.

As a final defense, Sambit said, “Please be assured, this is Narendra Modi not Manmohan Singh”.

<p>You have lost all rights to discuss terrorism. I will not discuss with Gaurav Bhatia or with people from the (Samajwadi) party that is sympathetic towards terrorists.</p>

<b>Sambit Patra, BJP Spokesperson</b>

The debate ends with no solutions, little information and a lot of speaking simultaneously, as it always has.