Imran Khan sees better chance of India-Pak peace talks if Modi wins polls

Current affairs

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said he thinks there may be a better chance of peace talks with India if Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins the general election due to begin there on Thursday.

Khan said that if the next Indian government were led by the opposition Congress party, it might be too scared to seek a settlement with Pakistan over Kashmir, fearing a backlash from the right.
"Perhaps if the BJP - a right-wing party - wins, some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached," Khan told a small group of foreign journalists in an interview.

This was despite the massive alienation that Muslims in Kashmir and Muslims in general were facing in Modi's India, said Khan, who took office last August.

"I never thought I would see what is happening in India right now," said the former international cricket star.

"Muslim-ness is being attacked."

Khan said Indian Muslims he knew who many years ago had been happy about their situation in India were now very worried by extreme Hindu nationalism.


 He said Modi, like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was electioneering based on "fear and nationalist feeling".The BJP's pledge this week to propose stripping decades-old special rights from the people of Jammu and Kashmir, which prevent outsiders from buying property in the state, was a major concern, though it could also be electioneering, Khan said...Read More

Why Congress cannot afford speculation of Robert Vadra's political debut

Election News:

Just months ahead of the general elections, the Gandhi family faces a nagging dilemma: pressure from Robert Vadra to enter active politics.

Vadra’s desire to enter politics is hardly a secret. The Gandhi family’s palpable resistance to it is also evident. Vadra is a soft target and his political entry will only delight the BJP.

After Vadra hinted that he could contest in the election, posters have cropped up in his hometown of Moradabad, welcoming him as a Lok Sabha candidate. Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, reacting to his speculated entry, said “Vadra could be important for the Congress but, we would not like to glorify him by reacting to it.”

After Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was appointed as the Congress party’s general secretary, it was only a matter of time before Robert Vadra followed. I asked Vadra if he planned to contest the general elections from Moradabad. Vadra said, “All in time. I will start working on it. But no hurry, as I have to earn it and people need to feel I can make a change.”

This means two things: clearly Vadra is extremely keen to enter politics but he is still hedging his bets by not saying that he will be the Congress’s Lok Sabha candidate from Moradabad.

Even the fevered speculation set off by Vadra’s hints is music to the BJP’s ears. Narendra Modi’s 2014 campaign hinged around the promise to jail the “damaadji” (son-in-law) for various cases of alleged corruption in land deals.


 Vadra, a controversial businessman, is facing several probes by the Enforcement Directorate for money laundering. Soon after Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into active politics, Vadra was summoned, along with his septuagenarian mother, by the ED...Read More