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One of the more inspired whispers that did the rounds of South Block this month, centred on the woes of a senior Indian diplomat in Islamabad. There is not enough justice to go round the subcontinent these days, he is said to have complained. "I got my house freshly painted but there was no one from the media to interview the workmen."
It would never have happened in India, a land where tamasha rules the roost. The last time an electrician and a painter entered Liaquat Ali Khan's tasteful bungalow on Delhi's Tilak Marg to ready things for a new High Commissioner, they became media magnets. When it comes to Pakistan, India tends to go overboard. We search out every tired soul who crosses into Wagah, we seek their views on just about everything and we leave many Indians wondering why the facility of free medicare for children isn't first extended to our own citizens.
Why, even the bearded, Taliban-loving Maulana Fazlur Rehman consumed more newsprint in India and hogged more airtime in a week than he has in a lifetime. Six years ago, poor I K Gujral was decried for his eponymous doctrine of asymmetry. Now, the Hindu nationalist Government is genuflecting before a neighbour that despatches suicide squads for pilgrims and soldiers in Jammu and whose PM blames India for explosions in Quetta.
It has been a remarkable turnaround. Last month, the Deputy Prime Minister was telling his American hosts that infiltration from across the border was unabated and that their faith in General Musharraf was grossly misplaced.
In May, the External Affairs Minister was quietly lobbying his Commonwealth colleagues to prevent Pakistan resume membership of that English-speaking union.
Now, a three-line whip is issued to RSS to host the Government's favourite maulana in Jhandewalan and BJP MPs are encouraged to join a sadbhavana panel to Pakistan. To cap it all, even the commemoration of India's Kargil heroes is driven underground for fear it could disturb neighbourly sensitivities!
So, what has changed after the PM extended his hand of friendship last April? India has gained oodles of brownie points from a West petrified of a local conflict becoming a nuclear flashpoint. Its people have grown in stature among Pakistanis for putting ordinary decencies above politics. And, its diplomats have gained a reputation for deft nimble-footedness - a euphemism for saying one thing one day and the opposite the next.
But what has India got in return? The Generals who have the ultimate say in Islamabad haven't mellowed. The levels of infiltration have not subsided. Some terrorist camps have been relocated but most are still in place. Our Intelligence agencies haven't indicated a massive churning process in Pakistan that warrants an overdose of unilateral brotherhood. In fact, apart from the anxiety of a few jehadis to focus all their ire against the US - and, by implication, ease the pressure on Kashmir - there has been nothing to suggest India should let down its guard.
Yet, we have done what Pakistan believed we would - we have blinked without remorse or explanation. India has lived up to its own caricature - Swami Vivekananda once called it the "feeble Hindu, the meek Hindu" image. It is not a flattering picture and not one to compel Musharraf into believing that the era of belligerence is over.
The fallout of this misplaced magnanimity is already being felt. The Prime Minister went to China last month and showered Beijing with love and understanding. He was accommodating on the border dispute, appreciative of China's concerns in Tibet and didn't even raise the troublesome Sino-Pakistan nexus. It has taken Beijing less than a month to respond to India's rediscovery of Jawaharlal Nehru.
The slap in the face India received last Friday - "China does not recognise the so-called Arunachal Pradesh" - could be a forestaste of what arrives by return post from Islamabad.
(This is the first of the weekly
columns which political analyst & commentator Swapan Dasgupta will
write exclusively for Sunday Pioneer)
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