The Union government’s decision to allow Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team into the Pathankot airbase has evoked different responses from two oldest allies of the ruling National Democratic Allianec. The Shiv Sena has said the decision reflects a “fatal obsession” of “every Indian Prime Minister”.
“This government has turned blind to Pakistan’s intentions, and Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit’s remarks reflect how deluded the Indian government is over the question of engaging with Pakistan,” Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said. “Hafiz Sayyed took responsibility within 24 hours of the attack. What is the Indian government waiting for? Whoever becomes the Prime Minister, they immediately become obsessed with Pakistan and how to engage with it despite grave provocations. I didn’t expect it from this government, but it too seems to be going down the same road,” he said. But the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) holds an opposite view. Its Rajya Sabha member Naresh Gujral, the son of the former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, told The Hindu that his party fully “supports the government’s efforts to engage with Pakistan. “Parties in the south or in the west may feel differently, but we are a border State [Punjab] and we are invested in good relations with Pakistan …,” he said.
