Talking peace, waging war

Jyeshtha Shuddha Dashami

By Shobori Ganguli

A serious and frequent victim of crossborder terror, India in the past four years has not, even by default, moved away from the clichés and symbolism of its feel good diplomacy with Pakistan. Predictably therefore, even as more "feel good" news about the two countries pours in — the latest being Pakistani rock group Junoon’s decision to perform in Srinagar — crossborder terror, now firmly rooted in India, was yet again dismissed in mere platitudes this week when the foreign ministers of the two countries met in Islamabad.

In a joint statement that flew in the face of shocking ground realities the two agreed that "terrorism is a common menace" and that the LoC ceasefire is still in place. While it is convenient for Pakistan to seek shelter in such blatant misrepresentation of facts, it is indeed unacceptable that India should parrot the same even as its Army registers a formal protest with Pakistan against unprovoked firing from across the border on an Indian post last week. The incident in which one soldier was killed clearly indicates that the ceasefire exists on paper, only to be brazenly flouted by the Pakistani Army on the ground.

Admittedly, pragmatism dictated proactive engagement with Pakistan to address that country’s proven export of terror to Indian cities. From Srinagar to Hubli, Varanasi to Mumbai, Jaipur to Jammu, arrests of suspected terrorists offer a chilling revelation of how anti-Indian operatives in Pakistan have managed to fertilise the bylanes of Indian cities resulting in a prolific crop of home-grown terror. However, the Manmohan Singh Government has failed to fathom the gravity of this perilous trend, equally evident in its internal security as well as foreign policies.

Constituted soon after the 2006 Mumbai blasts, the Indo-Pak joint Anti-Terror Mechanism (ATM) has achieved precious little in its three meetings since April 2007, a year in which India has been routinely maimed by terror attacks that have left no doubt about the source of their origin. Shockingly, various statements by the UPA Government would have some of us believe that Pakistani export of terror is a chimera of some frenzied minds which routinely conjure up images of Pakistan’s anti-Indian activities. True, many of the arrested terrorists are of Indian origin but the source of their ideological funding surely lies across the border, not just in Pakistan but in Nepal and Bangladesh as well.

Comfortably numb to this startling reality, prominent UPA ministers in the recent past have revealed the Government’s rather skewed policy on terrorism and terrorists. While External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee detects a "strong willingness and desire on the Pakistani side to move towards full normalisation of relations," Home Minister Shivraj Patil wonders what right do Indians have to demand Afzal Guru’s head. While Mukherjee agrees with Pakistan that "terrorism is a common menace", Patil virtually invites potential Afzal Gurus to spread terror with impunity since the UPA Government is a paragon of clemency, never mind if that entails pardoning those who attack the very foundation of this democratic country.

Does our Foreign Minister imply that Pakistan’s abetment of anti-Indian activities is a figment of someone’s imagination when he and his Pakistani counterpart agree to "refrain from hostile propaganda"? Are our Indian law and security agencies indulging in "propaganda" each time they point to a Pakistani link in a terror attack? Does our Home Minister have to be reminded that Guru has been found "guilty" in the December 2001 attack on Parliament in which seven security personnel lost their lives? Curiously, although Guru’s death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court of this country way back in 2004, his execution has been on hold purely because the UPA Government is yet to revert to the President on his clemency petition.

Quite evidently, the UPA Government’s four years in power have been marked by an obdurate refusal to do some straight-talking with Pakistan, an attitude that amounts to a criminal neglect of national security. Had the political will not been so wanting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi would not have flagged off the Srinagar-Muzaffarbad bus in 2005 that was ominously preceded by terror attacks across the Valley.

It is important to recall here that the Pakistani Government itself was extremely lukewarm to this "journey of peace" — the Muzzafarabad segment was inaugurated by PoK Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan. By matching Khan’s presence with Singh’s and Gandhi’s on this side, the Manmohan Singh Government only reflected its shamelessly servile one-sided diplomacy with Pakistan.

As for the ATM, that it is headed nowhere is evident from the fact that it has failed to force Pakistan to act upon the evidence provided by Indian security agencies on terror trails traced back to Pakistan. Armed with interrogation records of suspected terrorists, India has repeatedly requested Pakistan’s assistance. The most prominent one relates to the 2006 Mumbai blasts in which 11 Pakistanis had infiltrated via Gujarat, Bangladesh and Nepal; while one was killed in the blasts, the rest simply melted across the border. However, despite the ostensible desire of the two sides to exchange terror-related information which prompted the inception of the ATM talk shop last year, there is a woeful lack of political will in New Delhi to seriously address Pakistan’s most lethal export to India.

This, coupled with a Pakistani Government on artificial respiration, may lead to it being a while before Indians can breathe easy.

Source: www.dailypioneer.com