At Home Abroad

The Modi government gets kudos for its handling of Pakistan and China, but cross-border terrorism and local insurgency remain threats

- Sandeep Unnithan

 ONE OF THE biggest foreign policy successes of the Narendra Modi government came to pass on October 30 last year when it dispatched a 1.1 million tonne grain shipment to Afghanistan. The shipment sailed from Kandla port in Gujarat in six tranches and was unloaded at Iran’s Chabahar port at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. From here, the shipment travelled by rail and road to reach Afghanistan just over a week later. The port, road and rail network built under a $500 million project by India has, for the first time, allowed it to bypass Pakistan, opening up a new route to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Islamabad has been similarly bypassed in New Delhi’s diplomatic outreach as it seeks to enforce its ‘talks and terror don’t go hand in hand’ official line.

Relations with Pakistan have been on the backburner since the January 2016 terror attack on the Pathankot air base and the September 18 Uri attack the same year, in which 18 soldiers were killed. The first attack saw a freeze in ties, the second cross-border raids on Pakistani terror camps by Indian commandos.

The Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll endorses the government’s tough line on Pakistan—67 per cent respondents feel the Modi government has handled relations with Pakistan satisfactorily or handled them well, up 3 percentage points since the last MOTN survey in July 2017. Cross-border terrorists (33 per cent) and domestic insurgents (21 per cent) continue to be the biggest threats to internal security.