Failed State at War With Itself

Gopalaswami Parthasarathy, popularly known as G Parthasarathy, is a career Foreign Service Officer who retired from service in 2000.

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Before joining the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), he was a commissioned officer in the Indian Army from 1963 to 1968. He served as Ambassador of India to Myanmar (1992-95), High Commissioner of India to Australia (1995-98), High Commissioner of India to Pakistan (1998-2000), and High Commissioner of India to Cyprus (1990-92).

Parthasarathy had also been deputy secretary in the Foreign Secretary's Office from 1976 to 1978. He was appointed as the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs, and as information adviser and spokesman in the Prime Minister's Office from 1985 to 1990.

In an exclusive interaction with Sushil Kumar of The Statesman, he talked about Pakistan, the US, China, and India sending delegations to various countries post-Operation Sindoor.

Q. How do you look at Pakistan, an adversary that has had an anti-India stance for long?

A. Since independence, Pakistan has suffered from an inferiority complex. It was, in fact, born of the inferiority complex of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan towards Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. They (the people of Pakistan, not all) suffer from an acute inferiority complex when it comes to India.

Pakistan then becomes cozy with some superpower or the other—it was the United States before, and now it is China. They boast about their nuclear weapons program, but the design, assembly, and instructions for usage of those weapons are provided by China.

It (Pakistan) got the material for its nuclear weapons by stealing from the enrichment facilities of European countries. So, they have achieved nothing legally.

Q. What, according to you, led them to their current situation?