Modi's foreign policy is knee jerk diplomacy: Yechury

Branding the foreign policy of the Narendra Modi government as "knee jerk diplomacy", CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury today said the Centre should immediately send an all-party delegation to Kashmir and start talks with Pakistan to address the issue of terrorism.
"The Indian government is pursuing a policy on Kashmir which will have further ramifications. We must address the issues within Kashmir. A delegation of Indian Parliament should be sent to Kashmir led by the government to look into the ground level situation," he told reporters here.
"They are saying that the last time an all-party delegation went, nothing fruitful came up. We are saying that now you have reports of all the working groups, including that of the interlocutors who were appointed last time. On that basis, the government should prepare certain proposals. And we have been saying to stop the use of the inhuman pellet guns," he said.

Yechury said the government was not undertaking the course which could solve the unrest in Kashmir.
He criticised the recent statement of Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar who had said terrorism was "central" to its relation with Islamabad, whose different views and attitude have made it difficult for bilateral ties to grow.
The CPI(M) leader said the Foreign Secretary stated nothing new.

"What is the government now planning to do? Is it
planning to start Indo-Pak dialogue? You need to start it for our sake, to restore normalcy in Kashmir. We have to expose Pakistan, shame Pakistan in international arena. But the foreign policy that Modi government is pursing is classic knee jerk diplomacy," Yechury said.

He noted that there was confusion about which course to follow, whether to follow the course of "56 inch sarkar or dropping by all of a sudden to have biryani".
India had yesterday rejected Pakistan's proposal to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks on Kashmir and made it clear that terrorism was "central" to its relation with Islamabad, whose different views and attitude have made it difficult for bilateral ties to grow.
Yechury also said Modi's reference to atrocities in Baluchistan would prove to be another mistake in terms of foreign policy.
"We all know about the human rights violation in Baloochistan. But Baloochistan is an integral part of Pakistan, as we have said that Kashmir is an integral part of India. Nobody has any right to interfere in that. So if you raise the issue of Baloochistan, Pakistan gets the opportunity to raise the issue of Kashmir," he said.