Diplomatic wrong

Is it not diplomatically wrong that an elected prime minister courts a bureaucrat of a foreign country? Agreed that diplomacy allows bypassing certain norms to allow for some space to manoeuvre but the meeting between visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyan Jaishankar and Nawaz Sharif is certainly uncalled for given the clamour made by people – intellectuals, media persons, etc – here over Narendra Modi going out of his way to welcome Barack Obama.
My point is that we made a mountain out of molehill when the head of a government – Narendra Modi – received the head of another state – Barack Obama – but we see nothing wrong when an elected prime minister met a bureaucrat of another country. This shows that our national narrative has come to a point where third-tier officials are to be dealt with by the highest office-holder of the country. I am not against peace but this is an issue of national honour and dignity. As the famous proverb goes, ‘peace prevails among equals’, therefore our desire for peace should not be at the cost of morale surrender, subjugation and compromise.
Shah Rukh Hashmi
Bahawalpur