Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 9, 2006
The worst fears about the UPA Government selling
out to Pakistan and thus severely compromising our national interest seem
to be coming true. It now transpires that National Security Adviser MK Narayanan,
during an unpublicised meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in
Dubai (of all places!) has conveyed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's eagerness
to pull out troops from Siachen Glacier.
According to the Narayanan-Aziz plan, Mr Singh will announce the pullout during
his visit to Pakistan, scheduled for August, in yet another grand gesture
of astonishing compromise in the face of Pakistani intransigence and worse.
If Mr Singh's offer of a 'Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Security' to Pakistan
while flagging off the bus service from Amritsar to Nankana Sahib was indicative
of the weak-kneed approach of the UPA Government towards Pakistan, the reported
decision to unilaterally withdraw Indian troops from Siachen comes as evidence
of behind-the-scene give-aways that will cost the country heavily in the coming
days.
What is particularly amazing about the move
to demilitarise Siachen is that it flies in the face of objections raised
by the Army which appears to have been totally ignored while taking a political
decision that contradicts national security interests. No less distressing
is the fact that by ordering a unilateral withdrawal, the Government will
be conceding Pakistan's demand, which enjoys the unequivocal backing of the
US, without getting anything in return. Islamabad has not accepted New Delhi's
terms of disengagement, especially authentication of the Actual Ground Position
Line.
The strategic importance of Siachen does not
merit elaboration; it is not for nothing that Indira Gandhi ordered troops
deployment in 1984 and since then the Army has held on to positions in an
inhospitable terrain despite huge casualties and mounting costs. It is all
very fine for the Prime Minister, whose Government lacks the mandate for sweeping
policy changes and who is given to "out-of-the-box" thinking, to
suddenly declare that Siachen shall be a "mountain of peace", as
he did some months ago.
But it is quite another matter to ensure peace
with a neighbour whose treachery is exemplified by the Kargil incursions.
The man who plotted and executed Pakistan's attempt to smash and grab Kashmir
via Kargil in 1999 is that country's military ruler today, and it is before
him the Prime Minister is happy to capitulate without a thought for the sensitivities
and security of more than a billion Indians. This is not diplomacy conducted
from a position of strength that we are witnessing, but the decision of an
individual to opt for the line of least resistance because he lacks the courage
of conviction.
Ever since the UPA regime came to power in
2004, it has willingly frittered away the gains of the NDA Government vis-à-vis
Pakistan. Furtively, surreptitiously the Prime Minister and his coterie of
advisers have chipped away at India's Pakistan policy and in the guise of
talking peace, gifted Gen Pervez Musharraf with enormous concessions. It would,
however, be unfair to blame the UPA Government alone for this sorry surrender.
The Opposition, more so the BJP, has shown
scant interest in making the Government accountable and forcing it to act
in a manner that is not prejudicial to our national interest. Barring the
stray voices of protest, we have not witnessed any concerted effort to pillory
the Government and force it to come clean on its intentions. And that's a
pity.
