India slams Erdogan, Imran for vilifying Macron

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet condemning today’s terrorist attack in France in which three persons were killed should be seen in the context of India’s growing impatience with jihadists and the state actors supporting them. Modi tweeted, “I strongly condemn the recent terrorist attacks in France, including today's heinous attack in Nice inside a church. Our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and the people of France. India stands with France in the fight against terrorism.”

On the face of it, this is an anodyne remark, but it acquires a different visage against the backdrop of the Ministry of External Affairs’ more forthright approach towards Pakistan, China, and Turkey. The MEA seems to be shedding excessive caution and unnecessary reticence—which have become a drag in this age of ‘wolf-warrior’ diplomats unleashed by the dragon, the age in which a Pakistani minister brags of carrying out the Pulwama terrorist attack. In an unusual statement, the MEA yesterday slammed “personal attacks in unacceptable language on French President Emmanuel Macron.”

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan are among the prominent leaders of the Muslim world criticizing Macron’s statements in the wake of the murder of a 47-year-old schoolteacher, Samuel Paty. The teacher was slaughtered by a jihadist in Paris recently.

Macron had called the murder an “Islamist terrorist attack.” He said, “One of our fellow citizens was assassinated today because he was teaching, he was teaching pupils about freedom of expression.”

Macron also said, “He [Paty] was killed because the Islamists want our future. They know that with quiet heroes like him, they will never have it.”

Erdogan responded by saying that Macron needed a “mental health check.” In a tweet, Imran Khan suggested that Macron was encouraging “White Supremacists or Nazi ideologists.”

In a statement yesterday, the MEA said, “We strongly deplore the personal attacks in unacceptable language on President Emmanuel Macron in violation of the most basic standards of international discourse. We also condemn the brutal terrorist attack that took the life of a French teacher in a gruesome manner that has shocked the world. We offer our condolences to his family and the people of France.”

It further said, “There is no justification for terrorism for any reason or under any circumstance.”

While the MEA did not name either Erdogan or Khan, it was quite evident that it was denouncing the two self-proclaimed champions of Muslims.

The MEA has to go many a step further; it must become more forthright, even blunt. Pakistan leaves no opportunity to raise the Kashmir issue; it continues to interfere, or tries to interfere, in Kashmir affairs which is our internal matter. China doesn’t recognize Arunachal Pradesh as part of India; it has even grabbed part of our territory.

And yet we stick to One China policy, accepting Tibet and Taiwan as parts of China. Even in the case of Pakistan, ministers don’t talk as much about Balochistan, Sind, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as they should.

It is time our foreign office and political leaders adopted a tougher approach and vis-à-vis against China and Pakistan..