Author: Wilson John
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 25, 2001
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/archives1/secon3.asp?cat=\edit4&d=EDITS&fdnam=oct2501
President Pervez Musharraf's latest
fulminations against India only betray the neurotic obsession of a failed
General who once nursed ambitions of being a statesman. Mark the words
he has chosen to launch his latest tirade against India. They reveal a
man with a flawed upbringing; a bully caught in his own game of deceit.
He has been fooling the Americans by making noises against terrorism even
as his men opened new supply routes to the Taliban Army. He has been taking
his countrymen for a ride by giving them the sugar pill of huge economic
benefits while selling out his country's interests to the American cause.
Three air force bases have been leased out to the US air force to operate
fighter jets to pound the Taliban positions, and civilians, in Afghanistan,
a fact that cannot be kept under wraps for long. The season of Ramzan is
nearing. It is a holy month for Muslims the world over. Any attack on a
Muslim country during this period would not go down well with the Muslim
community. Musharraf realises it well enough. He knows he has lost the
gamble. He never had any chance in the first place; the Americans are fair-weather
friends. They are quite capable of leaving fringe allies like Pakistan
in the lurch once they have used them. So like every cornered Pakistan
ruler, he has trained his guns on India, making threatening noises to leverage
himself out of the pit he has dug for himself and his country.
We should not respond to his juvenile
outbursts of impotence. We have to be more cautious and better prepared
to thwart his diversionary tactics. Pakistan's new gameplan is clear from
Monday's suicide attack at the IAF airbase in Srinagar. Attack and destroy
military targets within Kashmir before launching an attack on the line
of control (LoC).
The border is already hotting up
with Pak troops engaging Indian troops at several points along the LoC.
Both small arms and artillery guns are being used. One reason for this
escalation is to silence the rising crescendo of protests within the Army,
and the religious establishment, that together control President Musharraf
and his foreign policy. The second reason is to push more terrorists into
India to carry out a series of sensational assassinations and suicide attacks
at vital installations, military targets and national landmarks during
the festival season. This is not the usual threat that one reads in the
newspapers. This time the threat is clear and present. Pakistan, the fountainhead
of such threats, is today on the brink of being fundamentally destabilised.
A rattled and cornered Musharraf can buy peace from his countrymen only
by waging a war against India.
There is no need to over-react,
since there is no need to fear Pakistan. Such threats have been issued
in the past and we know how to deal with them. President Musharraf has
been in power only for the last two years. We have been tackling martial
rulers like him since 1947 and none have survived to tell his tale.
As long as Musharraf talks about
bangles ("chudiya"), let him do so unhindered. Teach him a lesson once
he begins to bite. We need to push ahead with our pro-active policy against
terrorism in Kashmir. There is no looking back now. There is no need for
peace talk either, even if it were to be conducted along the sidelines.
President Musharraf is clear about his intentions. We should be to, eliminating
all doubts and prevarication. Punitive measures should be the rule of the
day. Terrorists should be hunted down. Their hideouts should be pulverised
and those giving them shelter should be dealt with no less severity. We
must also keep our borders tight and secure, and give our troops on the
border a free hand. A shell for a shell. Musharraf can shake his bangles
for CNN. In the end it is he himself who will be shaken.
