Author: Abhay K Upadhyay
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: June 17, 2006.
Manmohan Singh would do well to reconsider
his fetish for peace with Pakistan ----- All speculation over Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's proposed first visit to Pakistan was finally laid to rest
on Sunday when the National Security Advisor MK Narayanan declared that the
visit was unlikely at least this summer. While talking to a news channel he
said, "The Prime Minister has an invitation from President Musharraf,
but he has not yet decided when he will accept the invitation".
This is a blow to the advocates of the Indo-Pak
peace process, who were jubilant at the apparent lull in bilateral relations.
They had argued that the Prime Minister must now take the process further
and go to Pakistan sooner rather than later. It if often pointed out that
the nearly six-decade-old relationship between the two arch-rivals are at
their all time best. There are a number of Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs)
going on ranging from people-to-people contact, talks on de-militarisation
of Siachen, progress on Sir Creek, etc. As of today, five crossing points
have been established along the Line of Control (LoC) for the divided families.
Recently, Pakistan and India have reached an agreement to initiate trade through
the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar Road and allow bus services from Rawalkot to Poonch.
What these self-styled "peaceniks"
fail to see is behind-the-scene intrigues planned by Islamabad and its jihadi
elements run by the ISI. There are any number of violent incidents, which
substantiate the hard truth that the ISI can never be trusted. The recent
surge in violence makes the invisible hand behind the acts amply clear.
It is obvious that Pakistan is diligently
following the Maoist dictum: "Talk, talk and fight, fight." Despite
the Kargil misadventure executed by General Pervez Musharraf, India resumed
the dialogue process again and the resumed Composite Dialogue Process has
completed more than three years. Under tremendous pressure from the international
community, particularly the US, General Musharraf reassured India in January
2004: "I will not permit any territory under Pakistan's control to be
used to support terrorism in any manner."
However, the ground situation tells a completely
different story. The two conditions for talks proposed by India, namely cross-border
infiltration must end and the terror infrastructure should be dismantled,
remains unfulfilled. The list of Pakistan-sponsored terror acts in the country
is long and is growing. The Army and intelligence sources have established
that in the past two months, cases of infiltration have shown an upward trend.
There are confirmed reports that the ISI has
made a significant bid to spread its terror network beyond Jammu & Kashmir.
The recent seizure of a huge quantity of RDX and sophisticated weapons from
nine terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba in Aurangabd and Nasik is a clear
indication that their tentacles have spread far and wide.
Attempts were made to disrupt the Roundtable
Conference, in Srinagar, called by Mr Manmohan Singh. Last Diwali, more than
60 people were brutally killed in the serial bomb blasts at Sarojini Nagar
and Paharganj markets in Delhi. The attack on the famous Sankatmochan temple
in Varanasi was a clear bid to disturb communal harmony.
India continues to voice its concerns to the
international community, but Pakistan carries on with its terror tactics.
During the Home Secretary-level talks held in Islamabad last month, India's
VK Duggal handed over a list of 38 wanted people to his Pakistan counterpart,
Syed Kamal Shah. New Delhi asked Islamabad to extradite the Mumbai blasts
accused Dawood Ibrahim along with the hijackers of Indian Airlines flight
to Kandahar in 1999, Hafeez Saeed and Masood Azhar.
Pakistan, as usual, feigned ignorance about
Dawood's whereabouts and handed over its own fictitious list of 58 "criminals",
who they claim are "hiding in India". While rejecting allegations
of promoting terrorism in India, Islamabad claimed that the country itself
was a victim of terrorism for playing the role of a frontline State in the
war against terror. Pakistan categorically said it would not hand over any
of its nationals to India for prosecution, which included Hafeez and Azhar.
Such dichotomy clearly merits the attention of those who call Pakistan as
their "most valued ally" in fighting terror.
Pakistan refuses to realise that its very
existence as a nation-State depends not on its jihadi activities, but its
sound development and growth-oriented policies.
Even independent studies have demonstrated
that Pakistan is a rogue State. Recently, Pakistan was rated as ninth on the
"2006 Failed States Index" of the US Non-Governmental Fund for Peace
and Foreign Policy magazine.
These indicators include criminalisation and/or
delegitimisation of the State, progressive deterioration of public services,
suspension or arbitrary application of the rule of law and widespread violation
of human rights (in PoK, Balochistan, Sindh). Besides, the emergence of security
apparatus as a "State within a State" (the ISI-Army combine), rise
of factionalised elites (the Punjabi domination in the Army as well as politics)
and intervention of other states or external political actors (Islamists).
A ninth ranked failed state as our neighbour is a grave threat and if that
state were trying their best to destabilise our country, the threat would
be even bigger.
Even the US is getting increasingly restless
with the double game played by Pakistan. While it pretends to fight terror
in collaboration with the coalition forces in Afghanistan, the ISI, controlled
by the Army, is collaborating with the Taliban, aiding them and proving them
with a safe sanctuary on Pakistani territory. This growing frustration with
Islamabad was apparent when US State Department Coordinator for Counter-terrorism
Henry Crumpton recently suggested that Pakistan was not doing enough in the
search for Osama bin Laden and his jihadi fighters.
India must categorically tell Pakistan that
it needs to do more to eliminate the terror network and that mere gestures
are not enough. It's time we called Pakistan's bluff and took concrete actions
against it.
(The writer, a senior journalist associated
with electronic media, can be reached at abhaykris@rediffmail.com)
