The Pulwama massacre

The withdrawal of the most favoured nation (MFN) status to Pakistan is largely of symbolic value. Pakistan had never reciprocated with MFN status for India, which means it maintained discriminatory trade barriers against India. The 200 per cent duty on imports from Pakistan may pinch slightly more. Along with it, the recall of the High Commissioner in Islamabad, and the briefing by the Foreign Secretary to envoys from all major countries may have achieved its initial purpose of exposing the deep decline in bilateral ties. There have been other successful initiatives in the past: persuading China to drop its objections to Pakistan getting listed by the Financial Action Task Force and the sharp drop in US military aid, though that can also be traced to the shift in the Afghan security calculus.

Indian diplomacy is offering an alternative to inter-state hostilities, but Pakistan PM Imran Khan, who would tweet on every minor communal discord in India, is deafeningly silent. Even the Kartarpur initiative was marred by the hidden communal agenda of stopping non-Sikh pilgrims. With peace remaining elusive, the Pakistan government will fail to fulfil its promise of economic prosperity to the electorate if India relentlessly turns the diplomatic screws. However, the Pakistani media’s glorifying reportage of the Pulwama massacre bodes ill. For, like the Indian media, it has rapidly slipped down the slope of jingoism, turning the dominant political narrative fervidly anti-India.

It is getting tougher for India to do business with such a neighbour. This reinforces the need to remind China about the languishing Wuhan spirit of reconciliation, to recognise India’s restraint and allow the UN to list Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist. India will lose its moral and diplomatic upper hand if it reduces its anguish to mere breast-beating jingoism. There is really no need to talk about retaliation or to settle scores overnight. What needs to be done should be done quietly and purposefully without the government or the Opposition trying to take political mileage out of this ghastly incident.