US-Pakistan Relations Strain India-US Strategic Partnership
The US has declared the Pakistani terrorist organization TRF, the culprit of the Pahalgam attack, a terrorist group. This means that providing financial help to TRF will be a crime under US law. The property of people associated with this organization will be confiscated and they will not be allowed to enter the US. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that declaring TRF a terrorist organization is an attempt to get justice for the victims of Pahalgam. Their State Department says that TRF is a 'proxy' of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Mark Rubio also said that he has 'zero tolerance' towards terrorism.
According to our Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, this is a timely decision and it is a 'strong confirmation of cooperation between India and America to fight terrorism'. The big headlines of our newspapers are also telling that India has had a big diplomatic victory and a strong message has been given to Pakistan. But sorry, I disagree. After the attack on Pahalgam, TRF had accepted responsibility on social media. Therefore, it is right to take this step but it will have no effect on the ground. Pakistan will not back down. Those who have been told that they will not be able to enter America will not even have passports, there is no question of having accounts in America. Lashkar-e-Taiba itself has set up TRF by staying behind. It does not have headquarters like Muridke and Bhawalpur which we destroyed during Operation Sindoor. After a few days of silence during the ban, these people will become active again. Only the badge needs to be changed.
For these people, shedding blood in India is important, not the badge. Pakistan does not want Jaish or Lashkar to carry out attacks in their name, so TRF was put forward. In the last few years, the terrorist organizations active in Kashmir have changed their names many times. Next time, some other name will come up.
Mark Rubio's announcement has come after three months. What were you watching for three months, sir? Why was your 'zero tolerance' towards terrorism asleep for three months? During this time, Pakistan was given a huge loan from the IMF and the World Bank. This could not have happened without the consent of the US. India kept complaining that you are encouraging terrorism, but the objection was not taken care of at all. The most shameful thing was Donald Trump inviting Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir to lunch at the White House. Big heads of states yearn for an invitation from the White House, but here the US President sat with the Pakistan Army Chief and had lunch for two hours. At that time, the Iran crisis was at its peak, but the US President took out time for the person whom India calls the villain of terrorism. Munir is perhaps the first Army Chief to receive this honour. After that, Trump very casually invited our Prime Minister to stay for lunch at the White House on his return from Canada. It is a good thing that the Prime Minister refused to stay but America's attitude shows that they are not concerned about our problems. Trump is creating political problems for Narendra Modi by repeatedly taking credit for the ceasefire. Now he has said that five planes were shot down during the clash between Pakistan and India. It was not told whose planes were shot down, but the Indian government was made accountable to its own people. CDS General Chauhan has accepted that there is loss in war but the matter was kept vague. Now Trump is putting pressure on this too.
That is why I believe that the ban on TRF is meaningless, the Indian government has been given a rattle to play so that it can tell people that a big diplomatic success has been achieved. This is just an eye wash. After Munir, Pakistan Air Force Chief Zaheer Ahmed Sidhu was invited there. This was the first visit of a Pakistani Air Force Chief to America after a decade. It is clear that the US government is trying to strengthen relations with Pakistan. The reason for this could be to separate them from China or to use them in the conflict with Iran, but the truth is that they do not care about our sensitivities. TRF has been banned to silence us. America has so far banned 13 terrorist organizations of Pakistan. How effective it has been is evident from the attack on Pahalgam. Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Dawood Ibrahim have all been banned but their activities are continuing as usual. America becomes active when its own interests are involved, like Osama bin Laden was killed by entering Pakistan. Neither has any such initiative been shown in the past nor will it be shown in the future.
Trump's second term is very different from his first incarnation. First Pakistan and then Israel won the heart of the US President by proposing Trump's name for the Nobel Prize. He is angry with India because despite claiming two dozen times that he had stopped the war between India and Pakistan, India is not giving him credit. America's major allies, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea are also angry. Trump wanted to hold talks with their leaders about Indo-Pacific but the leaders of those countries, troubled by the daily threats and tariff war, refused to meet him.
We are also being threatened that if we do not stop taking oil from Russia, heavy tariffs will be imposed. Trump wants Putin to stop the war in Ukraine. This is the right thinking but Putin is not agreeing, so to put pressure, a threat has been given that if the war is not ended in 50 days, 100% tariffs will be imposed on those countries which buy oil from there. India is also included in these countries along with China and Brazil. An American senator is threatening to destroy our economy. It is said that the big man is bigger than the small man, Subhanallah. America is flexing its muscles but now the NATO secretary has also announced that if India, China, Brazil do not stop buying oil from Russia, then “I will impose 100% punitive tariff”. This ‘I’ is interesting because NATO does not have its own country and many countries in Europe buy Russian oil from third countries because it is cheaper. But looking at Trump, many people in the West are using the language of arrogance. China has already straightened them out. We should also make it clear that unilateral steps can have a huge political cost.
The strategic partnership between India and America, which was much touted, is now nowhere to be seen. On the contrary, America is bringing India and Pakistan together. Trump's ego is happy with Pakistan's flattery. America is not going to punish Pakistan for terrorism. Yes, because we are needed in an organisation like Quad against China, the ban on TRF has been used to pacify us so that the government gets something to tell the people. But it is also clear that if we have a conflict with China tomorrow, there is no hope of help from America.
As far as Pakistan is concerned, if America had really put pressure on it, that country would have improved a bit. America's indecisive policy towards terrorism will make them more daring.
America is a very powerful country. Keeping Donald Trump happy has become a necessity. But there should be no compromise on the country's honour. We should make it clear that if they want to adopt Pakistan and impose sanctions on us, then they should not expect India to continue cooperating in international matters. We are not anyone's pawn. It is hoped that in this Parliament session, Prime Minister Modi will break his silence on these matters and give a strong reply. The country is waiting eagerly.