It was a very intelligent and bold move on the part of Narendra Modi to invite the leaders of the SAARC nations to his inauguration as Prime Minister on the 26th of May. There is no precedence for this. The big question was will the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif accept the invitation and come.
Modi has achieved something of a diplomatic coup now that all of them have agreed to come, Including Nawaz Sharif. This is a huge thumbs up for Modi as he been a controversial figure in the past and was denied a US visa for more than 10 years.
Unlike other SAARC nations , it was a very complex and tough situation for Nawaz Sharif. Modi has an image of being anti-Muslim who always took a very hard line on Pakistan. Modi has now emerged as the leader with a huge mandate. Pakistan has to engage with him. Nawaz Sharif in turn wants closer ties with India. He in fact invited Manmohan Singh for his inauguration when he became the PM in 2013, but Mr Singh declined.
Though Nawaz Sharif personally wanted to come, but he has to contend with the military establishment who might view this as Pakistan being treated like any other SAARC country like Nepal or Bhutan, unlike their view of Pakistan having a special status in the region, especially vis a vis India. They may also see this as Pakistan's endorsement of Modi. These may be popular views in Pakistan but a leader has to tide over all this to take the country on a future which has peace and prosperity. Nawaz Sharif could easily have chosen the easy way out of not coming himself and sending his president or his brother Shahbaz Sharif. The fact that he has decided to come despite running the risk of raising the ire of the Army and the ISI is extremely commendable. This may just be the decision which may take the two countries on the path to a long awaited breakthrough. Only time will tell......
It seems the inauguration is going to be a huge event which the world will be watching.
On the cricketing front, Yusuf Pathan went on the rampage today in a way only he can getting 72 in 22 balls and hitting the fastest 50 in IPL history. When he is on song, he is comparable to Gayle and Yuvraj Singh and now Glenn Maxwell.....in the process he hit Dale Steyn for 26 runs in one over....I doubt if Steyn who is the number 1 fast bowler in the world, has ever been hit like that. But then T20 is a batsman's game and bowlers are like lambs for the slaughter .I hope he continues his good form and stakes his claim for national comeback. KKR has now won 7 in a row and have got 2nd place for the knock-outs.
RCB despite all the big guns in their team are out.
No comments:
Post a Comment