Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: September 29, 2003
Introduction: For too long India
has allowed its responses to be guided by the sanctimoniousness of a professional
peace lobby. It is time we ignored these appeasers of jihad. Let the prime
minister's pronouncement that India cannot negotiate with terrorists be
the final word on Pakistan.
More than elation, there was a sense
of quiet satisfaction at home with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's
powerful rejoinder to General Pervez Musharraf's outburst at the UN General
Assembly. Pakistan's president needed to be told a few home truths about
his brazen duplicity and his penchant for blackmail. When he followed his
UN intervention with the firm assertion that the atmosphere is not conducive
to talks, Vajpayee did more than dispel an impression in Islamabad that
his hand of friendship was born of weakness. He simultaneously removed
the confusion that has dogged India's foreign policy and security establishments
for the past five months.
This is not to suggest that the
prime minister blundered in believing that the post-December 2000 stalemate
should be broken. The test of political leadership lies in creating opportunities,
sometimes out of nothing. When Menachem Begin flew to Cairo and embraced
Anwar Sadat in 1978, it was an act of audacity. Yet, they established the
foundations of an Israeli-Egyptian understanding that overturned three
decades of Arab grandstanding, and still lives on.
Vajpayee's bus ride to Lahore in
1999, the Agra summit and Srinagar speech aimed precisely at such an outcome.
Alas, the results on each occasion have been disappointing. We offer peace,
they reply with a war in Kargil, an attack on Parliament, bomb blasts in
Mumbai and jihad in Kashmir.
Perhaps the time has come to review
the assumption that we are dealing with an otherwise decent neighbour who
merely claims some of our land as his own.
We love to believe that the kindness
shown to a Pakistani child with a heart ailment will melt even the most
hardened souls across the border. We love to believe that the overpowering
strength of the hospitality we experience during casual visits to Lahore
means that politics is the only hurdle to rapprochement. And we love to
believe, as Rajiv Gandhi once put it, that the Taj Mahal is as much theirs
as Mohenjodaro is ours.
The time for such romantic piffle
is over. Actually, there was never any basis for it. The Quaid-e-Azam may
have been a clubbable soul who loved Malabar Hill as much he loved Hampstead,
and certainly more than he appreciated Karachi. But there was an inescapable
logic to the creation of Pakistan that has reached fruition now.
To put it bluntly, India and Pakistan
belong to different civilisations. Yes, there was a common heritage once
but it is naive to believe that there is anything remotely in common between
Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Ghazi Baba. The cultural convergence between India
and Pakistan belongs to history. Only the dregs of India like Dawood Ibrahim
and the tribe of professional capitulationists who assemble at Wagah each
Independence Day believe otherwise. A recognition of this separateness
must form the basis of all future dealings with Pakistan.
Second, we must realise that we
are not dealing with a failed state if only that was true but with what
V S Naipaul once called a criminal enterprise. Just because some of their
representatives are charming, convivial and keep a good table doesnt make
the Pakistani state any less venal. Remember the lies Musharraf uttered
before the Agra summit about Dawood not being in Pakistan and look at the
stories coming out of Karachi last week.
Third, we must constantly bear in
mind that Pakistan's strategic objective remains the bleeding of India.
The fulfilment of that goal doesnt merely involve sending its mujahideen
to Kashmir and triggering explosives in Mumbai, it necessitates creating
jihadi networks in Hyderabad and printing counterfeit Rs 500 notes.
Finally, it means never letting
our guard down. We made that mistake in 1999 and lost some 700 of our soldiers
in Kargil as a result. This time we didn't repeat the error. For this we
must also be grateful to our diplomats and our intelligence establishment
that refused to be swayed by vacuous emotionalism.
For too long India has allowed its
responses to be guided by the sanctimoniousness of a professional peace
lobby. It is time we ignored these appeasers of jihad. Let the prime minister's
pronouncement that India cannot negotiate with terrorists be the
final word on Pakistan.
