NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to join hands with Pakistan to remove poverty, a problem that stalks both countries, but he is not sure who to engage with in Islamabad.

Talking to Times Now TV in a rare interview broadcast on Monday, Mr Modi was asked about the red lines his government had drawn that didn’t seem to have enthused Pakistan — there was the standoff over contacts with Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders, the tardy Mumbai terrorist attack trial and now the Pathankot attack.

He said he had tried to be positive by inviting the Pakistan prime minister to his inaugural and later visiting him in Lahore.

“The first thing is that with whom in Pakistan you will decide about laxman rekha (red line) — with an elected government or with other actors?” he said. “So India will have to be alert and [vigilant] all the time. There should not be any laxity and negligence. We will work on the table (for discussion) and we will have to work on the borders.”

He said the world was speaking with one voice today in praising India’s role in dealing with a tough situation.

“Pakistan is finding it difficult to answer. The world is watching. If we remain an obstacle then we will have to convince the world that we are not like this.

“Earlier the world would not buy India’s story on terrorism and sometime it would even treat it as a law and order problem. Now the whole world is accepting what India says on terrorism. It is accepting the loss caused to India by terrorism, the loss caused to humanity by terrorism. I believe India will have to continue putting forth its view on this matter.”

Mr Modi did not see India’s foiled bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as a failure and said he would continue to talk to China on this and other issues.

He gave rare credit to previous governments for their effort to put India high up in the comity of nations. “First thing is that India has taken up such efforts consistently whichever government was in power — be it membership of UN Security Council, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) or MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime) or NSG.

“All of us made efforts. It is not only this government which has done this. This is in continuity. It is true that in our tenure, SCO has been achieved, MTCR membership has been achieved. I am fully confident that we have begun efforts in the direction of the NSG (membership), formally. The process has begun on a positive note. Everything is governed by its own rules. Things will move forward as per rules.”

On China, Mr Modi said: “I believe our talks with China should continue. In foreign policy, you cannot have talks with just the one country that agrees with your view.”

Mr Modi did not seem to mind that the US was often supportive of Pakistan. “Any country can have its own national interest. There has been warmth in our relations with US. The world is interconnected and interrelated.”

In reply to a question about hate speech by his Bharatiya Janata Party colleagues against India’s minorities, Mr Modi said the press should stop covering the incidents and that would settle the issue.

“I fought elections on the issue of development. Even the answer to the noise of communalism is development. Don’t make them heroes. I urge media to stop making them hero. If you will stop covering them they will stop speaking.”

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2016