India’s stand at BRICS

India’s unambiguous message to BRICS countries on Monday that there can’t be a distinction between good and bad terrorists successfully counters Pakistan’s convoluted narrative of support to a few fundamentalist outfits.

Terrorism, in all its shades and forms, attempts to demolish the institutional structures and tenets of a civilised society by resorting to bloodshed. At the core of its principles is the belief that violence is the only weapon of change. It should be met with strong condemnation from all countries. As a weak adversary, Pakistan realises that it can’t defeat India in conventional warfare. So, it chose to bleed the neighbour with a thousand cuts and simultaneously drive the wedge deeper between Hindus and Muslims in India. What is worrying for India is Beijing’s ambivalent stand on Pak-sponsored terrorism.

Russia, one of the key partners in BRICS, had, earlier in a bilateral engagement, signed a declaration with India and denounced all kinds of terror attacks. In the BRICS forum in Beijing, Minister of State for External Affairs Gen (retd) VK Singh’s call to other economies to refrain from showing any quarter to terrorists is an attempt at consensus building. Singh’s statement should drive home the message that China should desist from blocking India’s efforts to bring about a UN ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar. It’s surprising that China still requires prodding when it had banned burqas and ‘abnormal’ beards in the Muslim province of Xinjhiang in March this year. The following month it had banned Islamic baby names in Xinjhiang.