Author: Editorial
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: June 14, 2002
Despite motivated attempts by a
section of the viscerally hostile media to suggest that the NDA Government
was about to reverse the accepted policy of not letting in foreign troops
to monitor the situation on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, the
visiting American officials have been categorical in denying that any such
move was afoot. The report in an English daily on the eve of the US Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's visit to the region on these lines was mischievous
to say the least. The author, as usual, seemed to have his own personal
agenda and it was strange that he had been allowed by the owners of the
said newspaper group to misuse the columns of his paper for this long for
carrying out his devious political agenda.
Maybe that is the price newspapers
necessarily are made to pay when they are denied willfully the minimum
perquisite of a hands-own editor. (That vital lag would also explain how
shoddy cartoon strips devoid of a single humorous or even serious idea
would be marketed almost daily through all manner of stratagems, including
page one pointers, inspired fan mail and celebratory books on the side.)
Be that as it may, the canard let loose by the newspaper was exposed thoroughly
when it was categorically stated that the question of deploying foreign
troops on the LoC was not on the table when Rumsfeld met senior Indian
officials. Electronic sensors at the border to monitor the terrorist influx
do not by any stretch of imagination translate into foreign forces, as
the mischievous reports suggested.
Rumsfeld's day-long visit to New
Delhi was significant also for having brought into the open the fact that
Al Qaida terrorists were operating near the LoC in Kashmir. That they could
not have crossed over from Afghanistan to the J and K border without the
active connivance of the Pakistani authorities hardly needed to be stressed.
Surely it was in the US interest too to neutralize the challenge of these
Al Qaida operatives. After all, there was no guarantee that they wouldn't
target the US interests in the future. Rumsfeld noted that " we are getting
cooperation of all kinds of countries across the globe to fight the Al
Qaida and its terrorist network and working to see that these countries
do not become a haven for terrorists."
But as everyone knows Pakistan was
only too eager to provide sanctuary to Al Qaida members and it is in this
regard that the US foreign policy had not yet borne fruit. For, without
the active connivance of the ISI and other Pakistani agencies the Al Qaida
elements could not have found shelter, nay, protection in that country.
Rumsfeld's New Delhi mission was preceded by certain steps undertaken by
New Delhi to de-escalate the tense situation on the Indo-Pak border. However
it will be unwise of any leadership to accept on face value the assurances
given by General Musharraf and other authorities in Islamabad. In this
context, the statement credited to the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell,
that Pakistan had committed to end infiltration across the LoC in J and
K and further it would follow up with the dismantling of the terrorist
training camps needs to be tested on the ground. The veracity of the Pakistani
statements needs must be tested before India decides to undertake further
steps to normalise the situation on its border with Pakistan.
However it cannot be denied that
the intervention of the international community, especially the US and
the UK, has helped pull back the two nuclear powered nations from the brink
of an armed conflict. These high foreign dignitaries need not blank out
the region from their mental antennas once there is lessening of the tension
on the Indo-Pak border. Their continued interest alone might change the
ingrained mindset of the ruling establishment in Pakistan and help it learn
to live in peace with India.
