India Pakistan Chill Augurs a Winter
of Discontent
By
Manoj Joshi
SINCE
THE December 13, 2001, attack on Parliament, India’s dealings
with Pakistan have ranged from the frosty to arctic, when they
have not threatened to erupt into a hot war. Vajpayee and Musharraf’s
tough talk in New York could be the forerunner of one such hot
phase.
The coming Islamabad summit of the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC) should not lull people into believing
that the Indo-Pak fireworks in New York were all for show.
Vajpayee
underscored the country’s sentiments in his address to the
UN general assembly (UNGA) when he declared that there would be
no dialogue with Pakistan till it ended cross-border terrorism,
or till India managed to eradicate it on its own. But the greater
danger could be from the declining position of yet another Pakistani
dictator. The erosion of Pervez Musharraf’s position at
home and abroad was manifest at the UNGA.
Last
year, Musharraf used the Gujarat massacre stick to beat India.
This time, he had to face a skeptical audience, whether it was
the editorial boards of the newspapers he visited, or his bilateral
meetings with the US President and officials. At home, his relations
with the MMA Islamic alliance remain difficult with yet another
confrontation building up over the legality of Musharraf’s
position, both as President and as Army chief. As for Al-Qaida
and the Taliban, even the usually cocky Musharraf pleads helplessness.
Pakistan has brought the curtain down in this summer’s season
of feigned good feelings when businessmen and media personnel
toasted each other in New Delhi and Islamabad. Pakistani officials
have refused visas to a 40-member delegation of artistes who were
scheduled to attend the World Performing Arts Festival in Lahore
next month.
Six
Indian jurists invited by the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association
have met the same fate. For ten years and more, even as Pakistan
upped the ante in its support for terrorism in India, the government
of India’s official doctrine was to continue normal diplomatic
intercourse with Islamabad.
This
meant not only smiles and handshakes at diplomatic receptions,
but sustained bilateral dialogues and periodic summits between
leaders of both countries. After the December 13 attack things
have changed. India is no longer willing to maintain the facade
of normal relations with a state which sustains such abnormal
organizations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
This was the message in rejecting Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid
Kasuri’s visit to New Delhi, ostensibly to deliver the invitation
for the SAARC summit scheduled to take place in Islamabad in January.
Indian officials did not want to go through the charade of enabling
Pakistan to appear a good neighbor, when clearly it is not.
External
affairs minister Yashwant Sinha has made it clear that India’s
participation in the SAARC meeting will be a formal affair, nothing
more, nothing less.
There
will be no feigned bonhomie and meetings on the sidelines between
Vajpayee and host Musharraf in Islamabad as long as terrorist
training camps in nearby Margalla hills remain open.- Courtesy
TOI
