[lg policy] PM's cavalier conduct of foreign policy hurting India's national interests: Congress

[Harold Schiffman]

 PM's cavalier conduct of foreign policy hurting India's national
interests: Congress

By PTI  |   Published: 19th April 2018 07:13 PM  |

Last Updated: 19th April 2018 07:13 PM  |   A+A A-   |

Congress leader Anand Sharma (File photo | PTI)

NEW DELHI: The Congress today hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over
his "cavalier" conduct of foreign policy at the Commonwealth Summit and
bilateral meeting with British counterpart Theresa May, saying it is
"hurting" India's national interests.

Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said the Prime Minister's
"boastful" claims on surgical strike neutralising cross-border terror is
"embarrassing" as India continues to be exposed to multiple terrorist
strikes from across the border, losing brace officers and soldiers.

"Prime Minister Modi's cavalier conduct of foreign policy at the
Commonwealth Summit in London and the bilateral meeting with the British
prime minister is hurting India's national interests.

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"He needs a firm reminder that India engages with its strategic partner
countries with maturity and gravitas and does not take sides or make an
uninformed statement on issues of disputes between two strategic partner
countries," he said in a statement.

Hitting out at the government's policy towards Pakistan, Sharma said it has
been a "disaster" and it was "unbecoming" of a Prime Minister to speak out
the way he did.

"The BJP government's Pakistan policy is a disaster. It is both unfortunate
and unbecoming of him to say that India's Prime Minister speaks to Pakistan
in its own language," he said.

Sharma said Pakistan is home to a terrorist syndicate that targets India
and its people.

India, therefore, has the moral high ground and every right to take firm
action to confront and defeat terrorism, he said, adding that the entire
nation stands united behind the armed forces in fighting terrorism.

Modi told his British counterpart yesterday that there would be no dilution
in the importance of the UK to India after it leaves the EU, as the two
leaders agreed to infuse new energy into bilateral ties post-Brexit.

Later at an interaction with the Indian diaspora, the Prime Minister talked
about surgical strikes on Pakistan to demolish terror training camps and
warned Pakistan that India will not tolerate those who like to export
terror and will respond to them "in the language they understand".

The Prime Minister, during the 'Bharat Ki Baat, Sabke Saath' programme at
the iconic Central Hall Westminster, said when "someone has put a terror
export factory in place and makes attempts to attack us from the back, Modi
knows how to answer in the same language".


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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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