Modi receives congratulations, peace overtures from Sharif brothers

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a rather curt congratulatory message from his counterpart in Islamabad, M Shehbaz Sharif, on Monday, as well as a tad wordier overture for peace between India and Pakistan from M Nawaz Sharif, who calls the shot in the ruling coalition in the neighbouring country.

Modi thanked Shehbaz Sharif with a curter message and reaffirmed in his reply to Nawaz Sharif that ensuring people's well-being and security would always remain his government's priority.

“Felicitations to @narendramodi on taking oath as the Prime Minister of India,” Shehbaz posted on X tagging his counterpart in New Delhi. “Thank you @cmshehbaz for your good wishes,” replied Modi.

Modi also received a message on X from Shehbaz’s brother Nawaz Sharif. “My warm felicitations to Modi Ji (@narendramodi) on assuming office for the third time. Your party's success in recent elections reflects the confidence of the people in your leadership,” wrote the former prime minister who now heads the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) of the PML (N).

The PML (N) and its ally Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) now run the coalition government in the neighbouring country. “Let us replace hate with hope and seize the opportunity to shape the destiny of the two billion people of South Asia,” Nawaz wrote on X making another peace overture to Modi.

“Appreciate your message @NawazSharifMNS. The people of India have always stood for peace, security, and progressive ideas. Advancing the well-being and security of our people shall always remain our priority,” the prime minister replied to his former counterpart in Islamabad, articulating New Delhi’s stand.

Modi underlined the security of the people as his priority and thus subtly ruled out the possibility of an early thaw between New Delhi and Islamabad, in view of the export of terror to India from the territories under the control of Pakistan.

New Delhi had the leaders of the seven neighbourhood nations – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Seychelles, Mauritius, Nepal, and the Maldives – assembling at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday to witness Modi being sworn in as the prime minister of India for the third straight term.

But no invitation was sent to Shehbaz as the complex relations between India and Pakistan remained in an impasse since the middle of 2016.

A day before Modi took oath in New Delhi, Shehbaz Sharif was in Beijing, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping. A joint statement issued after the meeting had China again joining Pakistan in subtly opposing India’s August 2019 decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and to reorganise the state into two union territories.

When Modi had taken the oath to commence his first term as the prime minister in May 2014, New Delhi had played host to the leaders of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations, including M Nawaz Sharif, the then prime minister of Pakistan. Modi had held separate bilateral meetings with all the SAARC leaders, including one with Sharif, which had raised hope for a thaw in bilateral relations. But after back-to-back terror attacks in India by outfits based in Pakistan, Modi had declined to attend the 19th SAARC summit that Nawaz had planned to host in Islamabad in November 2016, leading to the cancellation of the conclave. The SAARC has remained in an impasse since then.

With New Delhi focussing on breathing fresh life into the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) and projecting it as an alternative to the SAARC for regional cooperation sans spoilsport Pakistan, the leaders of the seven-nation bloc had been invited to attend the second ceremony when Modi had taken the oath for his second term in May 2019. Imran Khan, the then prime minister of the neibhbouring nation, had not been invited.