BJP prime minister-elect Narendra Modi already indicated a paradigm shift in India's foreign policy as he invited Saarc leaders including Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to attend his swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi on 26 May. The move came as a surprise and got due appreciation from politicians in Jammu and Kashmir and pundits in foreign affairs.
"Modi wants to signal that India wants to improve ties with its neighbouring countries. Modi doesn't want to make a Pakistan-centric foreign policy. Moreover, we cannot invite other Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) leaders and not invite Pakistan. We are not against the business community of Pakistan for instance but with the establishment that paints India as enemy number one," BJP leader Seshadri Chari told CNN-IBN during a panel discussion.
Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi. PTI
Former Indian envoy to Pakistan G Parthasarathy considered the move as a diplomatically prudent one.
"Modi is celebrating his victory in the largest democracy of the world with his neighbours. This is a message to the world, not just Pakistan," he said.
However, there are doubts that Prime Minister Sharif will be able to attend the ceremony and would be represented by President Mamnoon Hussain instead.
"There is a lot of civil-military tension brewing in Pakistan. Many people are watching what Sharif will do. Before coming to power, Sharif promised to lot on good ties with India, increased trade opportunity and so on. On the ground the situation is quite different," said senior journalist from Pakistan Wajahat S Khan who joined the debate via Skype.
The former Indian envoy to Pakistan also aired similar views.
"There are serious problems that Nawaz Sharif is having with Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif. He already faced coup twice as prime minister before. Once in 1993 from then General Abdul Waheed Kakar and in 1999 from General Pervez Musharraf. Whatever that may be vis-a-vis relationship with Pakistan Modi cannot leave the (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee legacy," Parthasarathy said.
The baggage from the past is however still refusing to leave Modi completely, particularly the scars of the Godhra riots of 2002.
"There are a lot of Pakistanis who came to know about Modi fortunately or unfortunately because of the Gujarat massacre. His career been a subject of interest after that. Modi definitely worries Pakistan," said Khan.
The shadow of the Gujarat riots may also cast some mistrust on the India-US relationship as the Indian Prime Minister-elect still cannot get an US visa as a regular citizen.
"Both sides will benefit by leaving the Gujarat issue behind. Earlier the Congress party, the Indo-American community in the US also pushed for the visa restrictions on Modi. However, during the campaign this time Modi did not focus on communal politics but focused on development and good governance. Let the past be in the past. The Obama administration was also too slow in engaging with Modi. The US is behind the curb as Britain did engage with Modi in 2012 itself," said Lisa Curtis from The Heritage Foundation in Washington.
A known Modi-critic, professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, however, appreciated the diplomatic acumen of the Prime Minister-elect to start off. He did not go after Modi for the 48 hour delay in responding to US President Barack Obama's congratulatory message.
"Modi is trying to re-calibrate this message to shed his Gujarat image. India is a regional power. The US cannot do without India. There are still issues in the legal court that have to be resolved. But in the the response to the Obama a slow Twitter response is not a rebuff. He is making a new government and is busy other things after all," Chenoy said.
Parthasarathy felt that the US is adapting different yardsticks for different countries on the issue of human rights when the 2002 riots are taken into account.
"The US is playing a double standard game. Human rights violation in Pakistan, Libya, Iraq etc exceeds far more than it was in Gujarat. American behaviour has been churlish. The day the US ASmbassador to India meets Modi, the US State Department says the visa ban still holds on Modi. The warmth of relationship is seen in the Twitter exchanges that Modi had with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe," the cx-Indian envoy to Pakistan said.
Strategic analyst Vidya Shankar Aiyar was of the opinion that there was no point on holding on to the past.
"Modi is not going to be worried with the baggage of past years. He is trying to rise above his party in that direction. He arrives in Parliament like an irresistible force. He did the right thing by taking 48 hours to reply to Obama," Aiyar said.
The BJP spokesperson perhaps summed it up aptly.
"There is still a trust deficit between the US and Modi. But it is also a fact that the economic development has shifted from the West to the East," Chari said.
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