Pakistan: Bilawal spices J&K issue with G-20, threatens India with “unforgettable response”
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Smarting under the humiliating tag that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar pasted on him on Friday– “the spokesperson for terror industry, which is the mainstay of Pakistan,” and asked him when Pakistan will return PoK to India, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is now barking up the wrong tree: New Delhi holding a critical G-20 meeting on tourism in Sri Nagar.
Ever since India scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019, Pakistan is trying to resuscitate the dead issue. Bilawal’s latest boasts are part of this ‘strategy’ as he tried to score some brownie points for public consumption at home, ahead of impending national and regional elections.
But Pakistan is not even a member of G-20, Dr. Jaishankar said later, exposing Islamabad’s locus standi and hypocrisy.
Under India’s presidency of G-20, the third meeting of a working group on promoting international tourism will be held in Sri Nagar from May 22 to 24.
To divert its starving people’s attention away, Pakistan is trying to sabotage this meeting by doing what it does best—relaunching terror attacks in J&K.
So, after the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Council of Foreign Ministers (SCO-CFM) meeting ended in Goa, the controversial Bilawal, infamous for his anti-India diatribes on international forums, told hand-picked accompanying Pakistani reporters that “We condemn the holding of the G-20 meeting in Sri Nagar. We will respond to this on time and they will remember it.”
“Do you think the Sri Nagar meeting is G-20’s endorsement of India’s stand on Kashmir?” a journalist raised a ‘planted’ question to get a pre-fabricated answer.
In fact, ahead of the G-20 meeting in May, Pakistan has already reactivated its trained army of sponsored and funded terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. Many terror attacks have been launched from across the border, killing several security personnel.
Why is Pakistan so nervous about the Sri Nagar meeting?
Because if the delegates get a taste of a peaceful and progressive J&K’s new status and its potential for global tourism, it would be akin to a global endorsement of India’s policy on the border state.
Apart from G-20 members, the event will see the participation of delegates from guest countries and several international organizations. Besides, a major event will also be held to highlight film tourism. The visitors will also be going to the ski sites of Gulmarg.
The idea of the tourism event is also to showcase and revive the potential for filmmaking in J&K with a focus on single-window clearance and other facilities for foreign crews.
The G-20 meeting on tourism in Sri Nagar is the third in India. The first working group meeting was held on tourism potential in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat in February to highlight rural and archaeological tourism through excursions and other events. The second was held at Siliguri, West Bengal, from April 1 to 3.
The fourth meeting of the tourism track group, a ministerial event, will be held in Goaa in June where an official ‘Goa Roadmap’ will be issued.
The G-20 member countries comprise Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico, United Kingdom, United States and the European Union, India’s special invitee guest countries this time include Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain, and the UAE.
