Should Narendra Modi accept invitation of Imran Khan and attend his swearing in as next PM of
Pak?
Media reports suggest that Imran Khan is trying to borrow a leaf out of the book of Narendra Modi & wants to invite PMs of Neighbouring countries, as Narendra Modi did earlier in 2014 during his oath ceremony.
Question is , should PM Modi respond to the invitation of Imran Khan, in case it officially comes to him?
If I have to give my own opinion on the above, my advice to my PM would be flat "No".
No doubt, it may look slightly discourteous to decline an invitation of the next PM of our immediate neighbour and more so when their last PM accepted invitation of our current PM and attended his swearing in ceremony in May 2014.
No more rhetorics and now we need to be realistic about our relations with Pak. No doubt, Imran Khan as a cricketer has enjoyed huge fan following in India in past and even as a person in public life, he has enjoyed deep personal chemistry with several of our people in public life. Despite the above, we must know, relationship between two nations is guided by historical priorities & interests of the two nations rather than personal relationship/chemistry between heads of two nations. And as we know, Pak's historical priority continues to be Kashmir and Imran Khan, as a politician has always echoed the same sentiments. Also, Pak's ruling establishments and more particularly it's army, have always looked at India as enemy no. 1 & in order to harm and destroy India, they continue to export terror across our border on regular basis. We must know, Imran Khan, as a politician, has been no different from his predecessors so far as India is concerned. Imran, during recent elections, indulged in as much hate India campaign as his political counterparts like Shahbaz Sharif of PML and other leaders of different political parties.
We also shouldn't forget that Imran is a protege of Pak army. He was the choice of Pak army in recent pak elections. Pak Army supported Imran in several ways to get him elected as next PM of Pak. And, if, Imran is hand-picked PM nominee of Pak Army, we should have no confusion, how Imran, as PM of Pak shall act & conduct vis-a-vis India.
Also, even though, at personal level, Imran may be a modern, western and liberal man; however as a politician, he has always supported and represented world views of religious fundamentalists of Pak. And, as we know, the priority of religious fundamentalists has always been to see destruction of India.
In a nutshell, whatever may have been the personal chemistry of Imran with several Indians, he,as PM of Pak is expected to be hostage of Pak army & religious fundamentalists and given the attitude of Pak army and religious fundamentalists, Imran as a PM is expected to conduct no different from his predecessors and hence Indian PM Narendra Modi Ji, shouldn't be gung- ho about the invitation and should decline it politely. Our future response shouldn't be guided by window exercise of Pak as in past rather, the same should be guided by strong commitment and ground action of Pak towards checking export of terror across our border.
