Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Imran Khan wants Modi to win' that was published in Newsband

Imran Khan wants Modi to win

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said a win for Narendra Modi in the General elections would revive hopes for India-Pakistan peace. Foreign leaders normally shy away from commenting on domestic political outcomes. After the Pulwama attack tensions between the two countries have been at a new high. Exchanges after that have fuelled the tensions still more.

Khan said that India-Pakistan peace had a “better chance under Modi”. He also said that if the next Indian government were led by the opposition Congress party, it might be too scared to seek a settlement with Pakistan over disputed Kashmir, fearing a backlash from the right.

Khan’s words espousing dialogue with India are equally aimed at the US, the EU and the Gulf countries, which would like to see bilateral tensions ease. Khan also spoke of action being taken against terror groups including the Jaish-e-Mohammad.  

Pakistan’s establishment has consistently held that it would like to pursue dialogue with India. Khan’s statement fits in with this long-standing policy of pushing for talks, while New Delhi holds that there can be no talks until terror ends. Pakistan’s leadership believes that Jinnah’s two-nation theory, which advocated two majoritarian religious states — a Muslim Pakistan and a Hindu India — can only be realised if political parties in India too advocate a non-secular approach in government.

Khan’s rise to power has often been compared to Modi’s. Both have a strong belief in hard power politics, and have promoted tough national security policies. Both leaders have always campaigned as “outsiders to the system” and won elections on anti-corruption planks, while both their parties promote a majoritarian line that has caused concerns amongst minorities in their respective countries.

There can be two reasons why he thinks that the present political dispensation coming back to power will help to strengthen Ind-Pak ties: 1) He hopes that by praising our PM, there won't be any more surgical strikes from India in case of any untoward incident and Modi will go soft on Pak henceforth. 2) He himself isn't capable of wiping out terrorism from his soil, at least India can help him in doing it.

There can be no shortcuts to peace. India’s neighbour has to take decisive actions against terrorism, stop interference in J&K and vacate illegally occupied part of J&K. This territory includes a historic shrine of Indian community that has zero population in neighbouring country. Till then India’s neighbour (apart from basic diplomatic courtesies) has to face boycott in all walks of life from India.