With reference to "BRICS summit: How India failed to convince other nations on Pakistan" (October 17), it is a matter of serious concern that despite PM Narendra Modi talking tough at the BRICS summit in Goa, by pointing out that the "most serious" direct threat to regional security was cross-border terrorism, whose "mothership" was a neighbouring country that nurtures a mindset that proclaims terrorism as justified for political gains, India miserably failed to convince the other member states.
It's unfortunate that big brother China has repeatedly come to the rescue of Pakistan as the Goa declaration didn't refer either to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, headed by Masood Azhar - the man India believes was behind the Pathankot attack - or the Jamaat-ud-Dawa led by Hafiz Saeed, considered the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The "plea" of Amar Sinha, India's chief negotiator at the BRICS, that "India couldn't get a consensus on naming Pakistan-based terrorist outfits since it doesn't concern all the BRICS countries" is untenable.
Are South Africa and Brazil directly affected by the activities of Jabhat-al-Nusra, the Syrian Islamist rebel group? Shouldn't terrorism be condemned in all its manifestations? The moot question is: If India could not "convince" such a small group of the BRICS nations, how will it win its "war on terror" at the United Nations? Does this not imply the failure of Indian diplomacy even on home turf? We may have missed the bus yet again, but then there is always a tomorrow.
Vinayak G, Bengaluru
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