Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a knack for making Pakistan an election issue. When he fought the first election in Gujarat after becoming chief minister, he campaigned extensively against “President Pervez Musharraf”, as if the Pakistani general was the chief ministerial candidate in the state. Of course, those who knew Modi knew that it was part of his strategy to polarise the voters. All of a sudden, Pakistan has become a subject of debate in India. It all began when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) would become part of India. To this, former Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who had a close association with the BJP at one time, responded that Pakistan was not wearing bangles. He also mentioned that it was a nuclear power.
What he meant was that any attempt to capture PoK would result in a nuclear war. The Prime Minister did not leave the matter at that. His party resuscitated an old statement made by Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar that India should have good neighbourly relations with Pakistan. He also added in the same vein that Pakistan had nuclear bombs. Reading the two statements together, Modi alleged that the INDIA bloc was led by leaders who were scared of the nuclear might of Pakistan. It is not just the Opposition alliance but the whole world which is afraid of a nuclear war. Sensible people know the consequences of two nations throwing nuclear bombs and missiles at each other. Only a reckless, nonsensical person would say that he is not afraid of a nuclear bomb. Anyone who knows about Hiroshima knows that the weapons India and Pakistan have are deadlier and more devastating. It is also well-known that no country can win a nuclear war.
Modi has taken the debate to another crass level when he claimed that Pakistan was suffering from so many shortages, including a shortage of bangles. He even went to the extent of claiming that he had the capability to force Pakistan to wear bangles. The fact of the matter is that by Modi’s own admission, tens of millions of people in India cannot afford to survive without the government supplying them virtually free food grains. His statement is like the pot calling the kettle black. It was just nine years ago that Modi himself gatecrashed the then Pakistan prime minister’s marriage party to wish his daughter and bride. After all, a nation can choose its friends, not its neighbours.
