India talks while Pakistan plots
Liberals in India have for long argued that like in India, civil society institutions and liberal opinion will be the driving forces in moulding the political discourse and social ethos of Pakistan. Anyone who challenged this conventional wisdom was labelled either a hawk or as communal. Our liberals can, however, be very illiberal when disagreeing with dissenting views! But the assassinations of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti at the very heart of Pakistans national capital, and the reaction in Pakistan to these events, appear to have shaken the basic assumptions of our liberal elite, about emerging developments in Pakistan. The entire world was shocked when Salmaan Taseers assassin was showered with flower petals when brought to trial. Worse still, lawyers, political commentators, not to speak of clerics, had no compunctions in asserting that Taseer and Bhatti got what they deserved, because they had the temerity to assert that Pakistans infamous Blasphemy Law, was being used to oppress and terrify minorities in the country.
There are growing signs that within Pakistan, radical groups are now wielding power with the gun and moderate voices are being silenced. In the Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, the writ of the stare barely exists. In most parts of the province, pro-Taliban elements have bombed or closed schools, prevented girls from going to school, banned films and television, closed video parlours and barber shops and made growing of beards compulsory.
In southern Punjab, the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which attacked Indias Parliament in December 2001, makes common cause with the Taliban. Other radical Sunni groups like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which enjoys the patronage of senior members of the ruling Muslim League Party, not only backs the Taliban, but is also responsible for periodic pogroms against Shias. And in the provincial capital Lahore, chief minister Shahbaz Sharif allots government funds to the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (a pseudonym for the Lashkar-e-Toiba), which is an organisation banned by the UN Security Council as an international terrorist organisation.
In Sindh, the ruling MQM is arming its cadres (Muhajirs from India) to deal with what is claimed as an influx of pro-Taliban Pashtuns, with frequent armed clashes breaking out.
Adding to Pakistans internal turmoil is the fact that it is saddled with a government led by President Asif Ali Zardari, which is widely regarded as being both corrupt and inefficient. The economy is in shambles with growth in the current financial year expected to be around 2 per cent.
More importantly, real power in Pakistan is not wielded by the elected government but by the all powerful army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. General Kayani is in the unique position of wielding supreme power without any political accountability or responsibility. He told the American ambassador that he was seriously considering throwing out President Zardari, but regards former prime minister Nawaz Sharif unfit for high office. He held out the possibility of favouring Pashtun leader Asfandyar Wali Khan as perhaps best suited to be Pakistans president. He flatly refused to send his ISI Chief Lt General Shuja Pasha to India when asked to do so by Zardari and ensured the president has no access to the countrys nuclear secrets or strategy. The Americans and others treat Kayani as Pakistans de facto ruler and regularly pay happy homage to him.
American experts have profiled General Kayani as the most anti-Indian Pakistan army chief ever. And Kayani has made no secret that his policies are exclusively India-centric. It is well known that the attacks on our embassy, on Indian-aided projects and on Indian nationals in Afghanistan, by the Pakistan-based Taliban supporters, have been carried out with the encouragement and support of the ISI. All these attacks occurred during Kayanis tenures as ISI chief and thereafter as the army chief. It is not India alone that has suffered from such terrorist attacks recently. The Americans and their NATO allies are finding that their forces are increasingly coming under attack from the forces of Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, who operates with ISI support, from bases in the North Waziristan tribal agency of Pakistan.
India had very valid reasons to call off the Composite Dialogue Process after the terrorist strike on Mumbai. This dialogue process was resumed in 2004, after a categorical assurance from President Musharraf that he would not allow territory under Pakistans control to be used for terrorism against India.
No punitive action, even symbolic, like withdrawal of its high commissioner, was undertaken by the Manmohan Singh government, to express its outrage at the ISI backed terrorist strike on Mumbai. What has now happened is that in an act of capitulation, the Manmohan Singh government has, under American pressure, meekly agreed to resume the composite dialogue process. This, despite the fact that it is now well known that Pakistan has no intention of bringing the masterminds and organisers of the 26/11 terrorist strike on Mumbai to justice. The prime accused in the case, the LeT operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, is known to still organise Lashkar operations from his jail cell. He is treated like a VIP, with Ahmed Shuja Pasha reportedly paying a personal visit to meet him in jail. It is evident to everyone, except perhaps our prime minister that General Kayani has no intention of ending his Jihad against India. In Kayanis eyes, his standing firm has forced India to the dialogue table on his terms.
It is nobodys case that India should not have a process of continuing engagement and dialogue with Pakistan. The two governments remained in touch with each other even at the height of the Kargil conflict. But what happens in such situations is that public attention and dialogue is focused almost exclusively on issues of primary concern. We did not discuss cricketing ties at the height of the Kargil conflict! What Manmohan Singh has now done by returning to the composite dialogue process is that he has signalled to Pakistan and indeed to the world that the Mumbai carnage is just yet another issue of the agenda of dialogue. India has let it be known that it has short memory and forgets and forgives the masterminds of terrorism very easily. Worse still, we have weakened our position internationally, by irresponsible statements suggesting that the main challenge we face is not from Pakistan sponsored terrorism, but from Hindu terrorism. Pakistan is campaigning across the world that even Indias politicians accept their problems of terrorism are primarily because of Hindu Terrorists and that the Indian army is made up of religious fanatics, as evidenced by the charges framed against Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Purohit for his involvement in the Malegaon blasts. New Delhi has been inept and ineffective in countering such propaganda.
Unimaginative diplomacy has been accompanied by political expediency. National interests have, in these circumstances, been compromised and undermined.
G Parthasarathy is a former foreign service officer and has served as high commissioner to Pakistan
India talks while Pakistan plots | Pakistan | Manmohan Singh | Indian Express
Liberals in India have for long argued that like in India, civil society institutions and liberal opinion will be the driving forces in moulding the political discourse and social ethos of Pakistan. Anyone who challenged this conventional wisdom was labelled either a hawk or as communal. Our liberals can, however, be very illiberal when disagreeing with dissenting views! But the assassinations of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer and minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti at the very heart of Pakistans national capital, and the reaction in Pakistan to these events, appear to have shaken the basic assumptions of our liberal elite, about emerging developments in Pakistan. The entire world was shocked when Salmaan Taseers assassin was showered with flower petals when brought to trial. Worse still, lawyers, political commentators, not to speak of clerics, had no compunctions in asserting that Taseer and Bhatti got what they deserved, because they had the temerity to assert that Pakistans infamous Blasphemy Law, was being used to oppress and terrify minorities in the country.
There are growing signs that within Pakistan, radical groups are now wielding power with the gun and moderate voices are being silenced. In the Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, the writ of the stare barely exists. In most parts of the province, pro-Taliban elements have bombed or closed schools, prevented girls from going to school, banned films and television, closed video parlours and barber shops and made growing of beards compulsory.
In southern Punjab, the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which attacked Indias Parliament in December 2001, makes common cause with the Taliban. Other radical Sunni groups like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which enjoys the patronage of senior members of the ruling Muslim League Party, not only backs the Taliban, but is also responsible for periodic pogroms against Shias. And in the provincial capital Lahore, chief minister Shahbaz Sharif allots government funds to the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (a pseudonym for the Lashkar-e-Toiba), which is an organisation banned by the UN Security Council as an international terrorist organisation.
In Sindh, the ruling MQM is arming its cadres (Muhajirs from India) to deal with what is claimed as an influx of pro-Taliban Pashtuns, with frequent armed clashes breaking out.
Adding to Pakistans internal turmoil is the fact that it is saddled with a government led by President Asif Ali Zardari, which is widely regarded as being both corrupt and inefficient. The economy is in shambles with growth in the current financial year expected to be around 2 per cent.
More importantly, real power in Pakistan is not wielded by the elected government but by the all powerful army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. General Kayani is in the unique position of wielding supreme power without any political accountability or responsibility. He told the American ambassador that he was seriously considering throwing out President Zardari, but regards former prime minister Nawaz Sharif unfit for high office. He held out the possibility of favouring Pashtun leader Asfandyar Wali Khan as perhaps best suited to be Pakistans president. He flatly refused to send his ISI Chief Lt General Shuja Pasha to India when asked to do so by Zardari and ensured the president has no access to the countrys nuclear secrets or strategy. The Americans and others treat Kayani as Pakistans de facto ruler and regularly pay happy homage to him.
American experts have profiled General Kayani as the most anti-Indian Pakistan army chief ever. And Kayani has made no secret that his policies are exclusively India-centric. It is well known that the attacks on our embassy, on Indian-aided projects and on Indian nationals in Afghanistan, by the Pakistan-based Taliban supporters, have been carried out with the encouragement and support of the ISI. All these attacks occurred during Kayanis tenures as ISI chief and thereafter as the army chief. It is not India alone that has suffered from such terrorist attacks recently. The Americans and their NATO allies are finding that their forces are increasingly coming under attack from the forces of Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, who operates with ISI support, from bases in the North Waziristan tribal agency of Pakistan.
India had very valid reasons to call off the Composite Dialogue Process after the terrorist strike on Mumbai. This dialogue process was resumed in 2004, after a categorical assurance from President Musharraf that he would not allow territory under Pakistans control to be used for terrorism against India.
No punitive action, even symbolic, like withdrawal of its high commissioner, was undertaken by the Manmohan Singh government, to express its outrage at the ISI backed terrorist strike on Mumbai. What has now happened is that in an act of capitulation, the Manmohan Singh government has, under American pressure, meekly agreed to resume the composite dialogue process. This, despite the fact that it is now well known that Pakistan has no intention of bringing the masterminds and organisers of the 26/11 terrorist strike on Mumbai to justice. The prime accused in the case, the LeT operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, is known to still organise Lashkar operations from his jail cell. He is treated like a VIP, with Ahmed Shuja Pasha reportedly paying a personal visit to meet him in jail. It is evident to everyone, except perhaps our prime minister that General Kayani has no intention of ending his Jihad against India. In Kayanis eyes, his standing firm has forced India to the dialogue table on his terms.
It is nobodys case that India should not have a process of continuing engagement and dialogue with Pakistan. The two governments remained in touch with each other even at the height of the Kargil conflict. But what happens in such situations is that public attention and dialogue is focused almost exclusively on issues of primary concern. We did not discuss cricketing ties at the height of the Kargil conflict! What Manmohan Singh has now done by returning to the composite dialogue process is that he has signalled to Pakistan and indeed to the world that the Mumbai carnage is just yet another issue of the agenda of dialogue. India has let it be known that it has short memory and forgets and forgives the masterminds of terrorism very easily. Worse still, we have weakened our position internationally, by irresponsible statements suggesting that the main challenge we face is not from Pakistan sponsored terrorism, but from Hindu terrorism. Pakistan is campaigning across the world that even Indias politicians accept their problems of terrorism are primarily because of Hindu Terrorists and that the Indian army is made up of religious fanatics, as evidenced by the charges framed against Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Purohit for his involvement in the Malegaon blasts. New Delhi has been inept and ineffective in countering such propaganda.
Unimaginative diplomacy has been accompanied by political expediency. National interests have, in these circumstances, been compromised and undermined.
G Parthasarathy is a former foreign service officer and has served as high commissioner to Pakistan
India talks while Pakistan plots | Pakistan | Manmohan Singh | Indian Express
