Modi calls Indian reaction ‘new normal’ in ties with Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday vowed to respond strongly to any future ‘terrorist attack’, and warned that New Delhi would not tolerate ‘nuclear blackmail’ in the event of further conflict with Pakistan.

Modi, in a televised address to the nation – his first since hostilities began last Wednesday – said Pakistan had chosen to attack rather than help it fight “terrorism”. “If another terrorist attack against India is carried out, a strong response will be given,” he said.

“If Pakistan wants to survive, it will have to destroy its ‘terror infrastructure’,” Modi said. “India will strike with precision and decisiveness against the terrorist groups thriving under the cover of nuclear blackmail.

“India´s stand is very clear. Terror and talks cannot go together... Terror and trade cannot go together... Water and blood cannot flow together.”

Modi made reference to possible future negotiations but said that “if we talk to Pakistan, it will be about terrorism only ... it will be about Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.” On Monday, people were trickling back to Poonch, a frontier town in IIOJ&K and one of the worst-hit places.

But thousands of schools remained closed across AJK, as areas were cleared of debris from strikes and firing, said local official Naveed-ul-Hassan Bukhari. India, meanwhile, reopened 32 airports on Monday that had been closed due to the conflict, authorities said.

Senior officers from Pakistan and India were reported to have spoken on Monday in order to further secure the ceasefire. Abdul Basit at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore said it would be about modalities of the ceasefire and not policy decisions.

The aim is to “avoid any miscalculations, because right now one spark could quickly move towards a nuclear catastrophe,” Basit told AFP.

Geo News reports: Speaking in Geo News programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada kay Sath”, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the DGMOs of both countries had discussed the ceasefire and agreed to continue it.

“Modi said Pakistan’s DGMO had contacted for the ceasefire, while the DG ISPR had made it clear in the press briefing that Pakistan never asked for ceasefire. On the intervening night of May 6 and 7, India made the request to which Pakistan said ‘we will talk after taking revenge’. Trump himself said the ceasefire was not the result of contact between the DGMOs but of US mediation,” he said.

Asif said Pakistan had achieved five major successes. The first success, he said, was that it was made clear to India that if it wanted to gain military control over any area of Pakistan, it was impossible.

The second success is the diplomatic advantage. There have been attacks in the past, and Pakistan was usually left alone. India used to get support, but this time India did not get any support even from the United States. This was the third success.

Whenever such an incident happened in the past, there was always negative coverage of Pakistan in the global media, and the Indian narrative got more space. This time, the situation was reversed.

The defence minister said during the Indian attack and Pakistan’s counter-attack on May 6 and 7, Pakistan received a lot of positive coverage, and the achievements of its armed forces were appreciated.

After the Pahalgam incident on April 22, Pakistan’s offer to India and lack of concrete evidence with India also received a lot of coverage in the international media. Be it CNN, BBC, Washington Post, French newspaper, Sky News, New York Times, Bloomberg, or Reuters, almost all the international journalistic institutions saw a lot of positive coverage of Pakistan’s stance and achievements during the military confrontation.

The Pakistani government’s officials, retired generals, and Bilawal Bhutto vigorously put Pakistan’s position in front of the world.

The fourth success of Pakistan has been that the Kashmir issue has again come into the eyes of the world, making it clear that it is a significant problem that can bring the two nuclear powers to the brink of war anytime.

Kashmir has become a topic of discussion in the diplomatic circles of the whole world. The world had forgotten about Kashmir. However, this is a huge flashpoint and can pose a threat to the entire world at any moment.

The fifth success of Pakistan, Asif said, was related to the attitude of the US and Western countries towards Pakistan. For a long time, Western countries clubbed Pakistan with Afghanistan and started to deal with India separately, but after Modi’s recent mistake, there was a continuous impression that Pakistan and India had become a club again, and to some extent, it also appeared that both countries were important for America and Western countries. However, it may be that India is more important to them, but on this basis, they cannot leave Pakistan alone because India is trying to establish supermajority in the region. It can also cause problems for the United States and Western countries.

Asim Yasin adds: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Monday reacted strongly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tirade against Pakistan.

In a strong reaction following Modi’s press conference, PPP Vice President and the party’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Senator Sherry Rehman said Modi’s hostile posture and misinformation campaign against Pakistan and said his demeanour and words had exposed that India’s defeat at the hands of Pakistan was something hard for him to stomach.

“Modi’s tirade against Pakistan is delusional. It is addressed at his political critics that are growing in huge numbers. Pakistan will always seek to stabilise the region but not at the cost of water, state and anti-Kashmir terrorism,” she said.

Referring to the recent attempts by the Indian government to link alleged acts of terrorism to a pretext for military aggression, Senator Rehman warned of the dangerous precedent being set.

“For now India is trying to engineer a shift in global perception by equating an ‘act of terror’ with an ‘act of war.’ We will not let them normalize such a heinous plan,” she said. She said Modi was the one who evaded due process. Pakistan has already made sure that he can’t get a free pass to avoid accountability.

“There can’t be violations of sovereignty whenever he feels like it,” she said. The PPP vice president said what they did for three days amounted to war crimes and international terrorism but Pakistan still sought to cool down tensions until ‘we were dragged into responding, because we believe that war solves no problems’. “But obviously we will use our conventional deterrence against any aggression on our sovereign territory and people,” she said.

“We exercised our right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. What was Modi doing as striking at innocent civilians and creating war hysteria without responding to our offer of a neutral investigation?”

Sherry called for a robust, calm, clear response from Pakistan. “Pakistan must respond—clearly, loudly, and unapologetically. I need not remind people that Kulbushan Yadev is a serving military officer caught fomenting terrorism on Pakistani soil, in Balochistan in fact. So, it is Modi’s Bharat that has fingerprints all over the terrorism we are fighting in Pakistan.”

“Our position should be very clear — counter with clarity, credibility — and deterrence. Let it be a clear contrast to their orchestrated war of embarrassing misinformation with cold hard facts presented along with evidence. The world is paying attention. Pakistan has certainly not been the aggressor in the war Modi lost. We have always sought constructive dialogue, and never glamorised war, which sadly Modi has perfected as a political campaign pitch. “

PMLN parliamentary leader in the Senate and Chairman Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs Senator Irfan Siddiqui said Modi’s speech was nothing but admission of a shameful defeat.

In a statement on X, Siddiqui said, “Modi’s speech was admission of a shameful defeat and lamentation of a defeated person. Every word he spoke echoed ‘I am the voice of my own defeat’.”

“Operation Sindur has filled the coffers of ‘Bharat Mata’ with ashes. Instead of lamenting, it would have been better for Modi to remain silent after being slapped by the Pakistani armed forces and facing humiliation worldwide.” He added, “The stains of humiliation run deep and cannot be washed away by speeches.”