Author: Vikram Sood
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: July 28, 2009
URL: http://news.rediff.com/column/2009/jul/28/guest-india-scoring-own-goals-against-pakistan.htm
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani
must have gone home chuckling, for never in his wildest imagination would
he have assumed that the Indians would score so many own goals in less than
an hour especially after the drubbing his President Asif Ali Zardari received
at Yekaterinburg, barely two months ago. The score at the end of play was
Pakistan four, India zero. This sudden loss of form remains inexplicable and
has bewildered and angered many. Some have attributed this to American coaching.
The Pakistani commentator Ayesha Siddiqa rubbed salt into our wounds, when
she said that "This is an Indian government which is under the influence
of the United States."
The four goals came in rapid succession. These
were:
"Both leaders agreed that the two countries
will share real time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist
threats." Now it is a basic and essential truth of life that we share
secrets with those we trust or with those where we have an identifiable common
interest or target. Do India and Pakistan have this? There is a clear divergence
between pious hopes and attainable goals.
"Prime Minister Gilani mentioned that
Pakistan has some information on threats in Balochistan and other areas".
The incongruity and irrelevance of these 16 words jars. Pakistan has been
blaming the rest of the world, chiefly India and now its benefactor and protector,
the US, for its current troubles. It conveniently ignores the fact that its
present problems emanate from the Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, both of
which creations of its own malevolence. Pakistan is today paying the price
of fighting a two-front jihadi war. Besides, the implication of the words
"and other areas" is particularly sinister. Already there are wild
accusations of Indian involvement in the terrorist attack on the Lahore Police
Academy and on the Sri Lankan cricketers. More terrorist attacks by the Taliban
or whoever wants to do this will surely take place in Pakistan. We can be
certain that the evil Indian hand will be seen in this. And what if there
is an attack on an American facility by the Pakistani Taliban and the orchestrated
allegations are that there is an Indian hand?
In Havana, we had raised Pakistan to our level
by describing it as a victim of terrorism. In Sharm el-Sheikh, we downgraded
ourselves to their level by allowing them to describe us as sponsors of terrorism.
"Both prime ministers recognised that
dialogue is the only way forward. Action on terrorism should not be linked
to the Composite Dialogue process and these should not be bracketed. Prime
Minister (Manmohan) Singh said that India was ready to discuss all issues
with Pakistan, including all outstanding issues." The eagerness to resume
the Composite Dialogue is mystifying if we at the same time insist that Pakistan
must give us satisfaction on the issue of terrorism. Clearly the two -- Composite
Dialogue and terrorism will now operate in separate, unconnected silos. What
is the leverage that we will have on Pakistan if we are not even going to
insist that we be given reasonable comfort before we resume dialogue? Ironically,
and after years of hard fought battles with Washington, we now hear voices
that suggest that they too have begun to understand and acknowledge the root
cause of the problem. There is an increasing acceptance that the war on terror
cannot be disaggregated and fought selectively. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman
of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke about the need for Pakistan to control
terrorism both on the eastern front and the western front. Just when this
is beginning to happen, we have wilted.
"Prime Minister Singh reiterated India's
interest in a stable, democratic, Islamic Republic of Pakistan". Now
why on earth do we have to say this? In the past also we have had our leaders
signing at the Minar-e-Pakistan while the Pakistanis mounted assaults on Kargil,
we rush off to Karachi and want to certify Mohammad Ali Jinnah's secular credentials
and now this. Has Pakistan ever expressed that it wishes to see a democratic
secular Republic of India? At least they are honest about this one because
no Pakistani leader can afford to say this and get away as this expression
undermines the very basis of the two-nation theory that the leaders still
cling to in search of an identity that is non-India. For 60 years Pakistan's
leaders have been trying to undermine India through the jihadis. It has not
worked but it has not been given up either.
S Akbar Zaidi, a Karachi based analyst, was
right when he said that India had to acknowledge that Pakistan, the intelligence
establishment and groups like the LeT were not going away. In this triangle,
Pakistan cannot survive without the other two, the Lashkar survives because
of the other two and the intelligence rules over both. In other words, so
long as there is Pakistan there will be the LeT backed by the Inter Services
Intelligence backed by the army. Zaidi also added that the Pakistani establishment
would not pursue cases against the Lashkar operatives involved in the Mumbai
attacks and feared that there could be another Kargil or a Mumbai.
In dealing with Pakistan we must accept that
its policy on jihad can no longer change. It has pursued this policy for far
too long and the belief apparently is that the only way to get out of this
mess is to get deeper into it. In the process it is also a state that is increasingly
obscurantist with an acknowledged reputation that the country is now ground
zero for global jihad. A terribly frightened and miniscule moderate section
stands by, unable to stand up to the jihadis' interpretation of Islam.
All this has been said in these columns before
but two important writings in recent months would testify to this. One is
Arif Jamal's book Shadow War: The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir. Jamal's
book confirms that Mumbai 2008 was a continuation of Baramulla 1947. The other
is an essay by John R Schmidt in the Survival journal entitled The Unravelling
of Pakistan which is one of the most honest and sombre accounts of what is
happening in Pakistan today and the dangers ahead that threaten the existence
of Pakistan with the Taliban now sitting west of the Indus and threatening
both Punjab and Balochistan. Since one author is a Pakistani journalist and
analyst and the other a former member of the US Foreign Service their views
cannot be attributed to Indian prejudice.
What we need to understand is that when Pakistan
feels cornered its leaders will seek assistance and sympathy and export mangoes;
their purpose served, they will revert to form and export jihadis. The way
to handle Pakistan is not through kind gestures and misplaced magnanimity;
these are taken as signs of weakness and generally used to bargain for more.
The Pakistani establishment has made full
use of its feeling of indispensability to the NATO effort in Afghanistan through
provision of intelligence and logistics. As the US has begun to realise coddling
Pakistan is counter-productive it needs to disabuse Pakistan of this and explore
the routes through Iran and Russia. For this naturally it must stop needling
both these countries; if India is required to give comfort to Pakistan to
allow it to assist the US effort why not the US give some comfort to both
Iran and Russia to enable them to help the US in Afghanistan. Indian presence
in Afghanistan is benevolent and it would be unfortunate if this is reduced
as this is the one country that has rendered assistance to the Afghan people.
Pakistan does not have to be given comfort on this issue. Carrots must reduce
and sticks must increase.
Pakistan has to be reinvented before it morphs
into something very frightening.
- Vikram Sood is former chief of the Research
and Analysis Wing
