Terror and POK is on Indian Agenda

India has strongly denied any talks with the US based on trade when Operation Sindoor was going on to send a strong message to the merchants of terrorism in Pakistan. It is pertinent to mention that the US President Donald Trump has been vociferously taking the credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. India has made it clear that the ceasefire was achieved directly through military to military contact between the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan. And there was no involvement of trade discussions or the US threats. The Ministry of External Affairs has issued a six point rebuttal that denies any US mediation or trade leverage in the ceasefire understanding. It has clearly maintained that Indo-Pak relations are strictly bilateral based on the national consensus and there is no deviation on that policy. This has been stated by the External Affairs Minister Dr.S Jaishankar. He also stated that the United Nations Security Council(UNSC) has underlined the need to hold the perpetrators of the Pahalgam carnage accountable and India has held them accountable through Operation Sindoor. While addressing the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had clearly stated India’s policy on Pakistan. He had categorically stated that there will be talks on Pakistan on terror and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).This makes it clear that the US utterings on inclusion of trade in the back channels efforts has no credibility and are far from the reality of the terms of reference of the ceasefire understanding between India and Pakistan.President Trump may have got carried away with the degree of US involvement in terms ceasefire understanding but now he has moderated his stand.External Affairs Ministry has categorically rejected the trade talks or trade leverage was also part of the ceasefire understanding making the US to moderate its stand. India has been repeatedly asserting that it will not accept any third party mediation on Kashmir and as such it has asked the US to lay off. After the neutralisation of Article 370 and 35 A in 2019 the scope of the third party mediation is completely ruled out as the mainstreaming of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India is complete. On the one hand the US has been trying to work closely with India to counter terrorism based on radicalisation and religious frenzy and on the other it is trying to go a bit soft on Pakistan. It must be noted that both the US and China want to keep Pakistan stable for their own interests but while doing this the US is losing credibility as an ally against terrorism as far as India is concerned. It must be also underlined that while trying to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, the US had bullied Ukraine to enter into a peace deal with Russia. And literally arm twisting it to withdraw. Remember it had encouraged Ukraine to continue the offensive against Russia but later asked it to withdraw keeping the US interest in the forefront. The US must internalise that India is not Ukraine and it cannot arm twist and use bullying tactics to browbeat India. While defending the national frontiers India will not allow the third party interference as the territorial integrity of the nation is non –negotiable. As far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned the only issue that is left is the reclamation of the Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) territories under the illegal occupation of Pakistan and the nation has the capacity to take it back.