Recently, Mr. Salman Khurshid and Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar have made disparaging remarks in Pakistan and to Pakistani media respectively that bring the Government of India and the PM in a bad light.

Mr. Khurshid has “praised” the efforts of Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif for long term peace with India but commented that it was the Indian government that made things uncomfortable for Pakistan to continue on that path insinuating the Government is not committed to peace. While it is a different thing to criticise the Government at home and that is a fundamental part of Indian democratic setup, it is quite another thing to say this in and to Pakistan. It gives validation to their statement that India is not committed to the peace process, something that India has always denied (rightfully) in all international fora.

 
Mr. Aiyar has gone a step further by saying that the only way Indo-Pak relations can improve is by removing Mr. Narendra Modi from the post of Prime Minister of India and even went so far as to hint that Pakistan needs “to remove Modi”. When probed by the news anchor if he was specifically asking for ISI’s help to remove PM Modi, he backed off and claimed that for the next 4 years [as long as Mr. Modi is the PM] no peace is possible. Again, this lends credence to Pakistan’s baseless assertions that we are not committed to dialogue and a long term peaceful solution.

 
What this means is that sedition is any form of speech, action, writing that incites hatred against the established order and harms the systematic peace of the country. The punishment includes imprisonment for life and added fines. Imprisonment can be for life-time or for three years based on the nature of seditious charges.

 
Telling Pakistan that the Indian government is not interested in peace allows them to run their propaganda in J&K and their plaintiff plea in international fora. And asking for help from Pakistan, albeit surreptitiously, to remove PM Modi can easily be construed as an invitation to step up terrorism in the country to increase public insecurity and discontent or worse to assassinate the PM himself. If you think this is paranoia, Pakistan is not above doing such random things. They have done so in the past. And both these gentlemen are creating the image of Pakistan being a paragon of virtue as though we have had a happy and peaceful relationship with Pakistan over the last 70 years that has now gone sour over the last 18 months thanks to Mr. Modi and his BJP government.

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