India’s SCO tantrum

If petulance had a face, it would have been captured in the aftermath of the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers' meeting. Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s decision to withhold India’s signature from the joint communique — already agreed upon by all other member states — is the latest example of the Narendra Modi government’s inability to handle criticism or face inconvenient truths on a multilateral stage. According to Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, the Indian minister was denied a second turn to speak — a privilege not granted under SCO protocol — after Asif mentioned the Jaffar Express terrorist attack and the case of convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav in his speech. Singh reportedly wanted to respond but was reminded that the SCO does not allow rebuttals once the floor has moved on. What followed was India’s petulant refusal to endorse a jointly negotiated document, which effectively blocked its issuance.

In a poor attempt at damage control, India’s Ministry of External Affairs spun the incident, saying the communique “did not adequately reflect India’s concerns on terrorism", and that consensus had not been reached. Indian media parroted this line, citing the omission of the Pahalgam attack. But as Khawaja Asif later revealed, the draft declaration did mention Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as well as terrorism in Balochistan — clear indications that Pakistan’s security concerns were given serio