Indian diplomats reacted with disappointment to the Shiv Sena’s threats and ink-protest against the former Pakistani Foreign Minister, Khurshid Kasuri’s book launch in Mumbai.
While some responded with references to the “idea of India” being hurt, others worried that India’s image and foreign policy could be overshadowed by such incidents. “There have been a string of events that are tarnishing India’s image,” says the former Ambassador, Neelam Deo, co-founder of the Mumbai-based think tank Gateway House.
Referring to the protests by the Shiv Sena that forced Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali to cancel his concerts in Mumbai and Pune last week, Ms. Deo told The Hindu that such events were disappointing to liberals outside India as well. “Let’s remember that there are many in Pakistan and neighbouring countries who have seen India as a democratic tolerant country to aspire to. That kind of moral image is being risked today.”
On Twitter, the former Foreign Secretary, Nirupama Rao, based in Bengaluru, defended herself after she tweeted: “Where is my India? Anguished and ashamed. I am sure Gandhiji is weeping. Tears in Heaven.” When she was questioned by others on the social media network for taking a pacifist stand, Ms. Rao, who has been a veteran of several rounds of tough negotiations with Pakistan in the past, wrote: “Let us be a grown-up nation. Let us put away intolerance. Cry, the beloved country.”
“Regrettable, unfortunate and condemnable,” is how former special envoy Satinder Lambah described the attack.
Asked why leading diplomatic thinkers had been reacting publicly to the events of the last few weeks, which was out of step with the past, the former Ambassador, K.C. Singh, told The Hindu that it was a question of the gap between India’s image and the reality.
“I think it is of concern to all-well thinking people in the country, not just diplomats, that this sort of incident ill goes with the image PM Modi is promoting abroad, and even could overshadow it,” he said.
“Considering the PM was elected on the vision of a progressive inclusive aspirational 21st-century India, the question we are asking is why he doesn’t challenge the rhetoric and actions of his allies and Sangh Parivar fringes?”
