What Jaishankar ‘Forgot’ To Mention About Vajpayee’s Approach to India-Pakistan
Modi was re-elected in 2019 on a massive Balakot-kinetic mandate. Earlier the central argument between India and Pakistan was: what to address first – Kashmir or Terrorism. At one point, this was settled by dealing with both simultaneously. Another troubling factor was the geographical spread of CBT, which was pan-India, culminating in Mumbai but concentrated in J&K.
While Americans have kept Pakistan on a leash since the Mumbai attacks, the size and scale of CBT in J&K has waxed and waned. Modi not only disengaged completely from any dialogue but also switched to kinetic response.
In his recent memoirs, late (former) President of India Pranab Mukherjee, a mentor for Modi, has advised against overstating the kinetic and romanticising the political approach to Pakistan. Neither revocation of Article 370 and reorganisation of J&K nor this kinetic response has curtailed or ended CBT.
That J&K will not…