As Pakistan's Joint Investigation Team (JIT), including an ISI member, reached Pathankot on Tuesday as part of their investigations into the January 2 terror attack at the IAF airbase, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers protested against them, waving black flags, shouting anti-Pakistan slogans and placards reading "Pak JIT go back".
They also accused the BJP government of hurting the sentiments of the people of the country by according a “red carpet welcome” to the Pakistan team.
The tone and tenor of these demonstrations was echoed by service veterans -- a majority of whom have been part of the BJP’s “nationalism” base -- who, too, responded negatively to the government allowing the Pakistani JIT into the Pathankot airbase.
Indeed, in a curious reversal of usual positions, the AAP and the Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of undermining Indian interests by permitting Pakistani security officials to visit a forward base, something that has never happened before.
The hashtag #ModiShamesIndia started trending on Twitter on Tuesday morning with the AAP and the Congress taking to the microblogging site to remind the Prime Minister about his hardline stance on Pakistan and terrorism in the past, even dredging up anti-Pakistan tweets dating back to the period in the run-up to the general elections of 2014. One re-upped a tweet quoting Mr Modi at a Baghpat rally on March 29, 2014: “Heads of our soldiers are cut but on the other hand Pakistan leaders are fed Chicken Biryani”.
Leading the opposition charge, Congress communication chief Randeep Surjewala said, “By allowing an official Pakistani team to visit and investigate, the BJP government has, for the first time, .. recognised that the Pakistani establishment does not have any role in perpetuating terror in India.”
Meanwhile, AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal too lashed out at the BJP, saying that after 30 years of India saying that the perpetrators of terror attacks in India were in Pakistan, it was their officers who were coming to India. “Hafiz Saeed is not in India, (Syed) Salahuddin is not in India… why is the government on its knees?”
Coming as this does amidst the raging debate over nationalism and patriotism -- one in which the BJP appeared to have an edge in -- and ahead of the Punjab elections slated for early 2017, it was evident that the demonstration of competitive nationalism by the AAP and the Congress had a dual purpose: one, to show up the BJP and the central government as lacking in patriotism; and two, whipping up anti-BJP sentiment among voters in Punjab.
For, as things stand, reports coming from the state suggest that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP government there is in trouble, and the contest appears to be between the Congress and the AAP.
The BJP did, of course, attempt some damage control, with party president Amit Shah telling journalists, “I think for the first time Pakistan has made a serious effort towards investigation.”
The Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of External Affairs had planned the visit by the Pakistani team, a visit that the Defence Ministry – reflecting the view of the armed forces – was clearly not comfortable with. Even on Monday, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said no permission was granted to the Pakistani JIT to visit the Pathankot airbase.
The Defence Minister made it clear that no defence official would be part of the visit as the investigations had been handed over to the National Investigation Agency, and it was up to it “to decide who should be allowed and who should not.”
