India cancels talks with Pakistan over ‘brutal killings’
Cancellation came a day after rival South Asian nations decided to meet in New York City next week at UN summit.
New Delhi: Barely 24 hours after India agreed to talks with Pakistan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, the government reversed its position, triggering a sharp reaction from Islamabad, which called the decision “ill-considered” and wastage of a “serious opportunity”. A statement released on Friday by the Indian foreign ministry said the cancellation of talks followed the “latest brutal killings of our security personnel by Pakistan-based entities and the recent release of a series of twenty postage stamps by Pakistan glorifying a terrorist and terrorism”.
Pakistan recently issued postage stamps of Burhan Wani, a young Kashmiri rebel commander killed by Indian troops in July 2016, whose death sparked a wave of violent protests in India-administered Kashmir.
“It is obvious that behind Pakistan’s proposal for talks to make a fresh beginning, evil agenda of Pakistan stands exposed and the true face of [the] new Prime Minister of Pakistan has been revealed to [the] world in his first few months in the office,” the statement said.
While the Indian foreign ministry’s statement did not specify which killings it was referring to, a border guard in India-administered Kashmir was killed earlier this week, with New Delhi accusing Pakistani forces of mutilating his corpse.
Discontent brews in India over Modi rule ahead of 2019 elections
Meanwhile, PM Modi swept India’s 2014 general election with the slogan “Achhe din (good days) are coming”.
Four years later, as Prime Minister Modi mobilises to win the re-election early
next year, he and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are being buffeted for a lack of jobs, falling prices of agricultural commodities and rural wages, a tax reform that led to unemployment and a demonetisation exercise that sapped liquidity. Despite high economic growth, the fall of the rupee currency to record lows this year has led to a surge in prices of largely imported fuel, which is feeding into inflation. Nationwide protests have broken out because of the price rise. “There’s no improvement in our life. We eat two basic meals a day but struggle to save for soap and detergent,” Misri Lal, 52, said in Bhomada village in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, where he earns $2 a day watching over a yellowish-green soybean farm.
In a series of interviews in India’s political heartland, the northern and central plains, many people said they had been disappointed by Modi’s government. But in a nation of 1.3 billion people, it was difficult to estimate how far the disillusionment had spread and how much it could affect Modi and the BJP at the next general election.