The Hindu : Gesture towards de-escalation?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 24, 2002

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Gesture towards de-escalation?

THE PAKISTAN PRESIDENT, Pervez Musharraf, seems inclined to make a new gesture towards India in an effort to de-escalate the skyrocketing tensions in bilateral relations at this moment. This explains the Musharraf administration's latest reassurance to India that "no organisation in Pakistan will be allowed to indulge in terrorism in the name of Kashmir". India should assess Pakistan's renewed pledge in a spirit of constructive diplomacy. It will indeed be statesmanship of the highest order if New Delhi could assess Pakistan's latest statement carefully. There certainly exists a pervasive wave of moral indignation across India over Pakistan's suspected complicity in last week's terrorist atrocity near Jammu as also in the earlier strikes of a similar kind. However, New Delhi cannot afford to oblige the Pakistan-based "jehadi terrorists" by taking a dim and hostile view of Islamabad's inevitable difficulty in taming them as quickly as India would like to see. To recognise the challenges that Gen. Musharraf faces in this regard is not to overlook Pakistan's obligations of goodwill towards the international community and good neighbourliness towards India itself. But equally so, nor can New Delhi scoff at international opinion that seeks to give some more time to Gen. Musharraf to deliver on his pledges, especially now when he renews his anti-terror promises to the global community. The reality simply is that Gen. Musharraf despite his undemocratic credentials is a modernist and relatively pragmatic interlocutor whom India cannot wish away as long as he stays the anti-terror course.

Pakistan's latest official statement against Kashmir-related terrorism is important for another specific pledge too. It states that "the (Musharraf) Government will not allow the territory of Pakistan or any territory whose defence is the responsibility of Pakistan to be used for any terrorist activity anywhere in the world". Now, India's concerns regarding cross-border terrorism, including the activities that might be traceable to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, have been implicitly addressed by Islamabad so as to suit its agenda. Yet, extensive indeed is the indicated scope of Pakistan's sensitivity to New Delhi's acute concerns, especially about the sources of anti-India terror. A follow-on question is whether Gen. Musharraf will fine-tune the overall message that he first sought to convey through his internationally televised speech on January 12 this year in the wake of a terrorist outrage against India's Parliament a month earlier. Shortly after the January 12 speech, the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, underlined that Gen. Musharraf had stated his opposition to terrorism wherever it might occur including in Kashmir. If that message was a categorical declaration of Islamabad's new intent, the Pakistani pledge now is a reaffirmation of that positive vow. One has of course to be mindful of the Western scepticism that America may have already misread Gen. Musharraf and the continuing encouragement of terrorism in Kashmir.

The Pakistan-related choices before New Delhi are highly emotive at this critical time of terror-inflicted tragedies that impinge on the Indian psyche. India, therefore, needs a truly forward-looking policy towards Pakistan to dispel the fog of competitive war psychosis that exists on either side. India's enlightened interest will not be served by a retributive war against Pakistan and the reasoning goes beyond the unforeseen apocalyptic images that could yet be conjured. With Gen. Musharraf saying he wants to pull Pakistan from the brink of a Talibanised future, his Herculean challenges qualify to be seen in a proper perspective. Those who wish to convert Pakistan into an Al-Qaeda-centric citadel of international "jehad" seem determined to make a mockery of his anti-terror pronouncements. If Gen. Musharraf can keep India's concerns in focus by seeking conscientiously to rid Pakistan of a virtual theology of terrorism, he will be taking a step towards an eventual peace dividend on the bilateral front.

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