Of late, lower and lower standards of political discourse are being set almost daily, especially by the Aam Aadmi Party and its top functionaries including Delhi government ministers. The rock bottom in this regard was hit by Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra who nonchalantly called Prime Minister Narendra Modi "an ISI agent". AAP leaders evidently revel in the shock value of their remarks, probably because they know they would not be taken seriously. Nevertheless, this particular comment elicited strong reactions because of its outlandish character.
The AAP was not alone in being critical of the Prime Minister and his government for inviting a Pakistani delegation to visit India in the backdrop of the terrorist attack on the Pathankot airbase. It was obvious from the start that Pakistani operatives were involved in this failed attempt to damage the military airbase, and they may have been assisted by terrorist sympathizers functioning within India. But typically, the Pakistan government reacted with shrill denunciations of the Indian charge and attempted to suggest that Pathankot was the handiwork of Indian saboteurs.
For some years now, Islamabad has been pretending victimhood, repeatedly asserting that it is a target of jihadi terrorists, stopping just short of insinuating that India is behind most acts of terror that happen within Pakistan territory, especially in Balochistan. It was recently seen how Pakistan tried to mislead international opinion by arresting a businessman of Indian origin and charged him with seeking to foment insurrection in Balochistan, which has experienced separatist disturbances for many years. Clearly, this was a diversionary tactic in the aftermath of Pathankot. Had Pakistan not been guilty, it would not have tried to build a smokescreen.
In order to silence Pakistan's propaganda machine once and for all, the Indian government took the bold gambit of asking Pakistani officials to join the probe into the Pathankot incident. Prime Minister Modi was not so naive as to expect the Pakistanis to admit to their role in it and beg forgiveness with folded hands. But the Indian government decided to open the Pathankot investigation to Pakistanis primarily to show world opinion that India has nothing to hide and that while Pakistan pretends to be a victim, it is actively involved in organising terrorist acts inside India. This fact is well known to Indians, but recent acts of the Taliban violence inside Pakistan has attracted a fair amount of Western sympathy, and it was necessary to neutralise it and call Islamabad's bluff.
Five senior officers from Pakistan, including one from its uber-powerful military intel agency, the ISI, visited India last week and were allowed to tour the Pathankot base that was attacked by terrorists in January this year (PTI photo)
Unfortunately, this courageous move by Prime Minister Modi was seized upon by forces inimical to him to allege hypocrisy, claiming that he had turned turtle in his approach to Pakistan. It is only to be expected that opposition parties in India will latch on to anything they can find, even clutch at straws, to deride Mr Modi and his government. In the last two years, the opposition has gone from weakness to weakness, while Prime Minister Modi's personal popularity is undiminished, if not growing. This is brought out by all opinion polls that have been conducted recently. Clearly, the opposition wants to weaken the Prime Minister where it would hurt - and Pakistan provided the easy tool.
It is one thing to criticize the government of the day - in fact, that is the opposition's job - but quite another to make absurd assertions and abuse the Prime Minister. Was the AAP Minister suggesting that as an ISI agent, Mr Modi was conspiring to hand over Indian defence establishments and strategic resources to the Pakistanis? Surely even an AAP leader could not have been thinking so, although it is common knowledge that many of them are not equipped with the intellectual capability to analyze and dissect information. As a result, they descend to
tu-tu-mein-mein levels of abuse usually heard in Hindi soap operas. That being the limit of their analytical prowess, it is not really surprising that one of their worthies called the Prime Minister an ISI agent.
Heaping abuse cannot be a substitute for political discourse, although some politicians in India fail to rise above it. Realizing the revulsion this silly remark against the Prime Minister had caused, AAP leader Ashutosh put out an elaborate defence of his colleague on
ndtv.com, partly apologetic and partly visceral in content, but minus the abuse. In an attempt to steal the mantle of nationalism from the BJP, Ashutosh has recalled the BJP's past stand on dialogue with Pakistan. In places, his statement reads similar to a BJP spokesperson's when he says that those who have bloodied Mother India don't deserve our hospitality.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, Pakistan in December 2015 (AP photo)
But it was not Indian hospitality that was on display when the JIT visited Pathankot. India placed all the documents and other evidence before the Pakistanis to show how Pakistan-based terror merchants are seeking to destabilise India. New Delhi aimed to reinforce the argument for jihadi murderers like Hafeez Sayeed to be handed over so that adequate justice can be meted out to them for killing hundreds of innocent Indians. Arguably, Islamabad will not be persuaded to hand over Jihad masterminds, nor dismantle the elaborate structure of anti-India terror built by Pakistan over the years. But when the NIA pays a return visit to Pakistan to pursue the same line of argument, hopefully Islamabad's dogged denial of its hand guiding the terror machinery will get dented.
The world too will see the effort India has made to engage Pakistan in trying to reduce the level of tension in the sub-continent.
For years, Ashutosh and his seniors, both in his party and the Congress, have accused Narendra Modi of jingoism and warmongering. But starting with the day he was sworn in as Prime Minister, Mr Modi has tried to reach out and defuse tensions between the two countries. Such is the pathological antipathy of Modi-haters that he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. Anybody who believes that Narendra Modi is approaching Pakistan with his eyes closed, is living in a fool's paradise. The Modi government is clear about Pakistan's proverbial duplicity and there can be no doubt about the BJP's nationalist commitment. That is imprinted in the party's DNA. One Kapil Mishra, or anybody else for that matter, cannot suddenly turn jingoist and hope to overtake the BJP in this space.
What critics of the Prime Minister's initiative on Pathankot have failed to understand is that this policy was framed not only with eyes open but also fists firmly clenched. Therefore much as Kapil Mishra's apologists try to whitewash his repulsive remark, they will only be laughed at for generating some mirth, like stand-up comics or circus clowns.
(Dr. Chandan Mitra is a journalist, currently Editor of The Pioneer Group of Publications. He is also BJP MP of the Rajya Sabha.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.