Opinion Sachin Pilot writes: The world must see Pahalgam

However, the decision for a ceasefire came about in the most surprising manner. The US President first announced it through his official social media handle, followed by similar disclosures made by the Secretary of State. Later, they made unnecessary and unwarranted references to Kashmir, offering mediation at a neutral site. Moreover, they avoided calling out Pakistan for its state-sponsored terrorism. On multiple occasions, the US President went on record stating that he had leveraged trade to negotiate the ceasefire — a claim that was not immediately and explicitly denied by our highest political and diplomatic offices.

This was contrary to India’s long-standing foreign policy understanding that comprised three essentials. First, Kashmir was and will remain a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, and any internationalisation of this issue is absolutely unacceptable to India. Second, one must not intermingle Pakistan’s terrorism and the issue of Kashmir; those are two totally distinct issues, and the global community is morally obliged to call out Pakistan’s terror-related practices. Third, there will be no talks on other issues unless cross-border terrorism stops and Pakistan vacates its illegal occupation of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Mediation on neutral grounds or dangling trade as a carrot (or stick) is completely unacceptable.

Another surprising development has been the global community’s missed opportunity to single out and denounce Pakistan’s role in nurturing, funding, and supporting terrorism. Till recently, Pakistan was on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list: Jurisdiction under increased monitoring.

However, during the ongoing conflict, the IMF provided another $1-billion bailout to Pakistan. Immediately after that, Pakistan offered comprehensive support and compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased terrorists, further strengthening the terrorist infrastructure. This alone justifies reinstating Pakistan in the grey or black list of the FATF as a country with “significant strategic deficiencies” in combating terror financing. The global community cannot remain apathetic to Pakistan’s proclivity to use funds to finance terror operations. For its own security, it needs to keep a check on the grant of resources to Pakistan.

A mere rehashing of calls for peace, dialogue, and de-escalation directed at both countries insinuates a false equivalence between them. India is the world’s fifth-largest economy (its GDP is 10 times that of Pakistan) and will soon become the third-largest. Pakistan’s crumbling economy and dependence on charitable donations render any comparison meaningless. India is a mature republic with deep democratic roots. It is an open secret that Pakistan is run by its military and intelligence establishment. This was further established during the recent conflict when the US Secretary of State called up the Pakistani Army Chief, knowing full well that a call with Pakistan’s civilian government would yield little. India wants regional peace to pursue its development goals. Pakistan wants regional disturbance as it helps its military-intelligence apparatus remain in power by falsely over-indexing the country’s threat perception of India.

India would like to pursue the path of peace and prosperity. We aim to have rapid and equitable growth for all of our 1.4 billion citizens. Hence, the global community’s hyphenation and reiteration of an “Indo-Pak” lens to the conflict should cease immediately. The only focus of the global community should be on Pakistan’s genuine efforts to halt its support for terrorism.

The Pakistan-China nexus is a problem that complicates India’s geopolitical position on two fronts. It is worsened by recent developments in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Bangladesh reportedly permitted China to revive an airbase that jeopardises India’s security in the Northeast region along the Chicken’s Neck corridor. India’s foreign policy and national security decision-makers must carefully monitor these developments and take steps to ensure that these pressures can be kept in check. We must redouble our efforts to engage with our global partners and allies to mitigate the risks developing around India’s multiple fronts.

As of today, Operation Sindoor continues with its stated objective of dismantling terrorist infrastructure through military intervention and non-kinetic efforts. India needs to ensure that key stakeholders — multilateral bodies such as the UN and IMF, and significant economic and military powers, especially the P5 — are sufficiently sensitised to Pakistan’s role in plotting, planning, funding, and harbouring terrorists to infiltrate Indian territory. If the menace is not controlled today, it will undoubtedly become a global problem with catastrophic consequences.

The writer is the MLA for Tonk, Rajasthan