Former FM Hina Rabbani Khar slams India as 'a rogue state'

Former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar  on Wednesday slammed India, saying it had turned into a "rogue state" and that it was on its way to "becoming a bully" in South Asia. 

While speaking to US political scientist Ian Bremmer of GZERO Media, Khar said the "shift in India is irretrievably dangerous", describing it as "neither short- nor long-term".

"It is going to create a whole dynamic which we will not be able to reverse," she said, noting  how South Asia was a very lowly-integrated region.

"Pakistan, together with India and all of South Asia happens to be one of the least integrated areas in all of the world. The African Union does better than SAARC [South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation] in terms of regional integration, trade within the region, etc.

"When you take that forward, India is now becoming the bully for the entire region and [by what it did in Kashmir] it is actually going against international commitments and — frankly speaking — regional commitments and bilateral commitments it made to Pakistan.

"When you do all of that, what do you become? You become a rogue state. I'm absolutely saying that they [India] are a rogue state, not only internationally or regionally, but even to their own people. Because the state is known by its commitments to its own people and to the world and to the region.

If a state renegades on all the commitments it makes, it becomes a rogue state," she added.

Khar noted that India had thrown all UN Security Council resolutions on the Kashmir issue, "in the dustbin, including the bilateral commitments that it had with Pakistan, which is in the form of [1972] Simla agreement and the commitments it had to what it calls its own citizens […]".

She said New Delhi had decided "to act [in this manner] because no one can come and do anything about it".

She highlighted how it was dangerous that "leaders whose populism is based on doing what is not right for the country are getting voted in" all around the globe, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria, and "certainly in India".

"As they get voted in on the basis of that popular vote, which is not perhaps good for the country, they still take the country in directions which are not good for it. [Their policies are] based on division, based on fear.

"You know the Franklin Roosevelt quote that 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' Right? Currently, fear is being sold very well by all of these extremist type of populist leaders, all over the world, India being no exception," she underscored.

When Bremmer asked if it would lead to similar political developments in Pakistan, the former FM said she was "not very fond of how the prime minister has been very divisive".

"I think by and large there has been a lot of political maturity that has been shown by the opposition parties and those are things that we have learned over the decades. And we hope that this political maturity that is shown by the opposition parties will have an impact on the government and perhaps we'll be able to meander through these very difficult times.

"Globally, I think there are difficult times, regionally difficult times, even for Pakistan, economically within the region. It's not a happy place to be in right now," she noted