(Harish Khare is a senior journalist, commentator and a research scholar)The strategic community, at home and abroad, was taken aback by the Modi Government's decision to cancel abruptly the Foreign Secretaries' level India-Pakistan dialogue. That the new government seemed willing to ratchet up a quasi-confrontation with Islamabad appeared at odds with the conciliatory noises Prime Minister Narendra Modi had so far made towards all neighbors, including Pakistan.
But the real note that ought to be underscored is the almost joyful and cheerful reaction among the "experts" close to the new establishment. These "experts" have betrayed a remarkable better-behave-or-you-are-going-to-get-it-in-the-neck arrogance. And those who had hoped that Mr. Modi would be using his considerable political elbow room to craft a new era of understanding and accommodation should stand disabused. The post-May 25 swearing in ceremony bonhomie is dead; the let-us-turn-a-new-leaf posturing has died a natural death.
No political leader can pursue-or will be allowed to pursue -a foreign policy that is at variance with the pronounced preferences and predilections of his domestic constituency. Only statesmen are permitted to run the risk of defying domestic public opinion in pursuit of higher goals, but, then, not all potential statesmen are allowed to have their way. And, Mr. Modi does not claim to be a statesman.
Indeed the new, hard stance towards Pakistan should surprise no one. Narendra Modi has not become a very different political individual just because he has won an impressive electoral majority on May 16, 2014. After all, we should keep in mind that the Narendra Modi political persona was chiseled over the last decade out a solid block of prejudices-a total distrust and dislike of the Indian Muslims, a cultivated animosity towards Pakistan, and an ideological antagonism towards Islam [and Christianity].
Indeed the 2014 Lok Sabha election cannot be understood in isolation from this very subtle anti-Muslim and very open anti-Pakistan rhetoric. And, it would have been unnatural-and insincere-on the part of Prime Minister Modi to suddenly start singing songs of amity and conciliation with Pakistan. It was rather foolish of Islamabad and the "moderate" voices in India to have been taken in by the Sharief-Modi "unstructured" conversation.
Prime Minister Modi's real difficulty in the months and years ahead will be to wean the country away from a bogus and dangerous perception that he and the Sangh Parivar have manufactured: that the Indian armed forces have the wherewithal to "sort out" Pakistan and "punish" Islamabad's military establishment for its anti-India pinpricks; and all that is required is a tough and true deshbhakt presiding over South Block. This self-serving perception is at the Hindu Right's core conviction-and constitutes Mr. Modi's intractable problem.
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