Islamabad, Pakistan – Former Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhrysays he didn’t realize that a three-word post on social media platform X on May 1 would inject his country into a heated conversation it had otherwise avoided until then: India’s noisy election campaign.
“Rahul on fire…,” he wrote, reposting a video clip of Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Indian opposition Congress party, in which he could be seen criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).
– Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) May 1, 2024
Chaudhry’s post, which came in the middle of India’s massive electoral process, which spans seven different voting days starting in April and ending in June, immediately went viral, racking up more than 1.8 million views. It was retweeted 1,800 times and received more than 1,500 replies.
Among those who responded was Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP’s information technology wing, who oversees the party’s vast social media machine. Malviya accused Chaudhry of promoting Congress leader Gandhi.
“Is Congress planning to contest elections in Pakistan? From a manifesto, which has Muslim league hallmarks, to a resounding endorsement, coming from across the border, the Congress’s flirtation with Pakistan cannot be more obvious,” wrote Malviya.
The Muslim League, one of the main political forces in pre-Partition India, was behind the movement that led to the creation of Pakistan.
Ch Fawad Hussain, who served in Imran Khan’s cabinet as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, is promoting Rahul Gandhi.
Is Congress planning to contest elections in Pakistan? From a manifesto, which has hallmarks of the Muslim league, to a resounding endorsement, of… pic.twitter.com/XllqlWdlAR– Amit Malviya (मोदी का परिवार) (@amitmalviya) May 1, 2024
A day later, Modi himself referred to Chaudhry’s post during an election rally in his home state of Gujarat.
“You must have heard. Now, Pakistani leaders are praying for the Congress,” Modi said. “Pakistan is very interested in making the prince [Gandhi] the prime minister. And we already know that the Congress is a disciple of Pakistan. The Pakistan-Congress partnership is now fully exposed.”
Since then, Pakistan has repeatedly figured in speeches by Modi and senior BJP leaders such as Home Minister Amit Shah as a battering ram to target the opposition and demonstrate the government’s vigorous response during tensions with its western neighbor. India.
After a veteran Congress leader referred to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, Modi used a crude and sexist metaphor in Hindi to suggest that his government would show Pakistan its place. Shah, in a speech, said India under Modi had given a “befitting response” to Pakistan’s “terrorism”.
Modi accused the Congress-led INDIA opposition alliance of defending Pakistan by giving its neighbor a “clean record” when it was accused of “terrorism”.
This growing emphasis on Pakistan contrasts sharply with the campaign months leading up to May, when relations between the neighbors were virtually non-existent as an election issue.
Chaudhry, whose post apparently triggered it all, said he was shocked. “I didn’t expect this kind of reaction, especially from Prime Minister Modi,” the politician told Al Jazeera.
The Pakistan government also reacted to Modi and Shah’s comments, calling them an “unhealthy and deep-rooted obsession with Pakistan”.
The statement, issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on May 14, said the Indian leaders’ comments revealed a “deliberate intention” to exploit hypernationalism for electoral gains.
“The bravado and chauvinism displayed by Indian leaders expose a reckless and extremist mindset. This mentality calls into question India’s ability to be a responsible steward of its strategic capabilities,” the statement further states.
However, Pakistani intervention in Indian elections is nothing new; in the past, it has sometimes even become a dominant flavor.
A nationalist narrative
The two neighbors have maintained a tense relationship since they became sovereign states in August 1947, following the end of British colonial rule in the subcontinent. The nuclear-armed nations have fought three major wars and share a contentious border in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but govern only parts of.
Modi and his BJP won a second consecutive term in power in the 2019 elections, in which the party’s campaign focused heavily on Pakistan.
On February 14, 2019, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of vehicles carrying Indian paramilitary forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing 46 soldiers. The Pakistan-based armed group Jaish-e-Muhammad claimed responsibility. Pakistan condemned the attack and denied any involvement. But India has long accused Pakistan of harboring groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad.
Days later, on February 26, Indian fighter jets crossed the Line of Control – the de facto border between the two nations in parts of Jammu and Kashmir – and bombed what New Delhi claimed were hideouts of armed fighters preparing to attack India. .
Pakistan reacted a day later, sending its own fighter jets into Indian-controlled territory, shooting down an Indian jet and arresting the pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, who was released two days later.
The nearly week-long conflict between the two brought the two nuclear-armed nations to the brink of war, just weeks before that year’s Indian elections.
Subsequently, Pakistan continued to be a key part of the election campaign. After several think tanks and independent analysts concluded from their investigations that the Indian jets had not hit any significant targets when they entered Pakistan-controlled territory, opposition parties asked the Modi government for proof of its success. claimed in the mission.
Modi turned these questions on their head, claiming they showed how the opposition did not trust India’s military and instead believed more in Pakistan – which also denied any major damage caused by the Indian attacks.
Although the Indian prime minister has once again brought Pakistan into the election campaign, Walter Ladwig, senior lecturer in international relations at King’s College London, said that compared to 2019, Islamabad was now a secondary concern for New Delhi, with Beijing becoming the “main foreign policy challenge”.
“It is true that the events of the 2019 Balakot attack were used in the campaign, but it was a rather unusual occurrence,” Ladwig said, referring to the city in Pakistan that Indian jets bombed. “In these elections, I see the invocations of Pakistan as a way of diverting attention from the fact that India has lost territory to China and that the government has been unable to significantly improve the situation or achieve a return to the status quo prior to 2020. .”
Ladwig was referring to clashes between India and China in June 2020 in the Galwan region of the Himalayas, in which more than 20 Indian soldiers died, while China lost four soldiers.
Since then, many independent analysts have pointed to evidence that the People’s Liberation Army has taken control of parts of previously Indian-controlled territory along its disputed border. The Indian government denies having lost any land to China.
Is it all rhetoric?
Despite the backlash to his May 1 post, Chaudhry doubled down and, two days later, published another message, suggesting that religious minorities in India could pose a robust challenge to the BJP if they united.
If Modi geo BJP can be so shaken by my single tweet, imagine what enlightened and progressive Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Hindus can do together? These classes must come together to defeat the narrative of division and hatred, support anyone who can stop Modi’s threat, be it Rahul or Mumta…
– Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) May 3, 2024
A few days later, Modi once again hinted at a pact between the Congress Party and Pakistan, without offering any proof.
“Congressional cross-border B team has become active. Tweets are coming from across the border to boost morale in Congress. In return, Congress is giving Pakistan a clean chit on terrorism,” he said.
For Qamar Cheema, an international affairs expert and executive director of the Sanober Institute, an Islamabad-based think tank, references to Pakistan in the campaign reflect the “changing nature of the idea of India” from a secular state to a Hindu-majority state. policy.
What happens if the BJP wins again?
Many opinion polls suggest that Modi and the BJP are the favorites to return to power for a third time.
If that happens, Chaudhry, the former Pakistani minister, said bilateral ties – already barely functional – would suffer even more.
“If the BJP and Modi win the elections by beating the polls, as they claim, relations with Pakistan will not improve but will instead deteriorate further,” he said.
But some analysts believe that despite Modi’s rhetoric, Pakistan’s endemic economic problems and India’s desire to focus its attention on the threat from China give New Delhi and Islamabad an incentive to significantly improve relations.
Several Indian governments in recent decades, Ladwig pointed out, have tried – but failed – to work with their Pakistani counterparts to improve bilateral relations. In his first term, Modi also made a surprise visit to Pakistan as the neighbors tried to relaunch talks before an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir shortly after ended those prospects.
“But now, in his third term, Modi would be thinking about his legacy,” said Ladwig. “Some kind of lasting rapprochement with Pakistan” could serve that purpose, he added.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
