NEW DELHI: Even as India braces itself to cooperate with the United States in the retaliatory actions it is about to launch against the Taliban regime, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee appears to be distraught over Washington's failure so far to take India's concerns into account in the overall strategy to combat terrorism. Alongside, in response to Gen Pervez Musharrafs intemperate remarks about India on Wednesday, he has decided to stall the dialogue process between the two countries.
"It is for America to decide whether terrorism is a global phenomenon or whether it is restricted to just one individual. America alone can determine whether it will address the symptom of terrorism or the system of terrorisrn," Mr. Vajpayee said in the course of a free-wheeling conversation with this writer on Thursday.
"Afghanistan is a symptom," Mr. Vajpayee said, adding, "America will have to look well beyond it. It will have to look at the sanctuaries provided to terrorists, at the training camps, at the arms and money flowing into the hands of terrorists, if it wants to get rid of terrorism's root and branch."
Until now, the Prime Minister pointed out, "no statements had emanated from Washington to suggest that the United States, although appreciative of India's offer to support its war against terrorism, was in a mood to focus on India's bitter experience of terrorist activities on its soil".
He hoped this would change once the issue of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi fugitive who the Americans claim masterminded the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C., was out of the way.
Throughout the Conversation, the Prime Minister dropped no hint whatsoever that he had the slightest regrets about offering India's support to the United States in its anti-terrorism drive. He dismissed out of hand news reports that some of his cabinet colleagues were not too happy with the policy. "Debates and discussions do take place, as they must," he said. He then added, "But once we take a position, everyone falls in line."
Mr. Vajpayee said that cooperation
with the United States even at the military level was not something new
for India. Jawaharlal Nehru had sought and obtained it in the wake of the
Sino-Indian border war in the early sixties. The Prime Minister said he
was most impressed by the American response to the terrorist outrages.
The political establishment and the country at large had put aside all
differences to support President Bush in every move he had made.