Prime Minister Modi’s critics find his aggressive stance against Pakistan on its terrorist affiliations at the BRICS and BIMSTEC summits as excessive. They point out that India’s fixation with Pakistan at these multilateral platforms has narrowed the country’s diplomatic canvas and diminished its rising international stature. The critics also feel that such forums are meant for developing a consensus even when positions of the participants differ on issues and are not meant to be used as platforms for scoring diplomatic points against a non-participating third country. The same critics point to China’s adversarial stance in obstructing India’s offensive against Pakistan on terrorism by making sure that the BRICS summit document did not contain formulations that reflected India’s concerns about Pakistan. President Xi went as far as insinuating that India’s problem with terrorism was based on the Kashmir issue which India refuses to deal with.
China and Pakistan’s recent closeness is not the only cause for worry according to critics of Modi’s foreign policy. They aver that even President Putin omitted any reference to terrorism in his statement at the summit which is another diplomatic setback for India. Modi baiters maintain that India lost an opportunity to make the BRICS summit a platform for seriously discussing terrorism across the board and not by isolating Pakistan. It is ironic that some groups in this country have adopted political positions which seem to converge with those of countries that clearly do not have the best interests of India at heart.
