Inside Track: Pak's PR Plus
Pakistan Crypto Council CEO Bilal bin Saqib is modest in claiming that Pakistan is a victim of bad PR. His country has an old tradition of outdoing India in the hospitality sector for influential state guests. For decades, Indian ambassadors have complained about their pitiful entertainment allowances compared to the lavish budgets of their Pakistani counterparts. The Pakistanis leave no stone unturned in entertaining VVIP foreign guests, from commandeering heritage monuments for throwing dinners to organising falconry and hunting parties of protected species for Middle East royalty. The Pakistani intelligentsia with aristocratic bloodlines and Oxbridge backgrounds have significant clout in Western liberal circles, including think tanks, NGOs, universities and diplomatic parties. Modi's India, painted by Pakistan as an illiberal democracy encouraging Hindutva zealots, is not a favourite in such company. (Ironically, during Operation Sindoor dissenting views within India reflected its plurality, while the Pakistani intelligentsia spoke in one voice while backing its military dictatorship against terror sponsorship charges).
One biased American legacy newspaper judged the military success of the two countries in the four-day war at par, even while displaying satellite imagery demonstrating extensive damage to Pakistani air bases and displaying no evidentiary proof of major destruction on the Indian side. In a bid to counter false propaganda, a senior official recently gave Indian MPs on the diplomatic outreach tours a breakdown of the relatively minor Indian losses. Realisation has dawned that in the absence of official information, Pakistani, Turkish and Chinese WhatsApp messages went to town spreading misinformation.
When Trump was elected, we assumed that he had a soft corner for India as a counter to China, particularly as some key Trump appointees have India ties. But his recent statements on India appear rather unfriendly, possibly because India, unlike Pakistan, is unwilling to give Trump credit for brokering a ceasefire and accepting tariff rates as a bargaining chip. The Modi government has finalised at great expense a former Trump aide as a lobbyist for India. Pakistan has a different strategy. In January, Donald Trump Junior's college friend and hunting buddy Gentry Beach was hosted by the Pakistan PM in both Islamabad and Dubai, and was reportedly promised lucrative deals for the Trump business empire. Beach also visited Bangladesh and Turkey. Just after the April 22 terrorist attack, Pakistan signed a crypto deal with World Liberty Financial, a crypto currency firm in which the Trump family has a major stake. Apart from Trump's mercurial temperament and business interests, another reason for the slight trust deficit in Indo-US relations is that Trump has yet to appoint key officials to liaise with India. A US ambassador to India has not been named. The post of US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia is vacant. Ricky Gill, a relatively junior officer in the National Security Council, is presently the only White House official directly dealing with India.
Supriya Sule's appointment as the head of one of India's diplomatic outreach teams and her recent meeting with PM Modi is significant. Sule was always the stumbling block in the NCP aligning with the BJP. Even when Ajit Pawar and most of the party defected, Sule persuaded Sharad Pawar to stay back. Pawar Senior desires a Cabinet berth for his daughter at the Centre. Modi would welcome the support of Pawar's 8 MPs. He realises Pawar's few MLAs are keen to join the government since they complain that their constituencies are starved of central funding because they are in the Opposition. In a new twist, Ajit no longer wants his uncle's NCP to merge with his wing of the party. Ajit's wife is still smarting from her defeat to Sule in the Baramati Lok Sabha poll. A pragmatic solution to get around Ajit's opposition is for Pawar's NCP to join the NDA directly. The BJP is treading cautiously since Sule has a history of persuading her father to run from the altar just when the marriage is about to be formalised.
Shashi Tharoor's selection as head of one of the parliamentary teams to present India's case on the war on terrorism is masterful on two counts. Tharoor, who met Prime Minister Modi before his foreign tours, is the most seasoned, skilled and well-networked diplomat in the group, and is already making waves. Congresspersons sourly question his motives in unequivocally applauding the Modi government. Tharoor confessed to a friend it is one thing to be ignored by Rahul Gandhi, but when the entire Congress unit in Kerala, taking its cue from K C Venugopal, gives him the short shrift, what future does he have in the party?
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