The Hindu : Shortsighted strategy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 21, 2003

Opinion

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Shortsighted strategy

THE LATEST PRONOUNCEMENTS of the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, strike a discordant note and must most certainly be deemed to be unhelpful to the current moves to improve relations with India. They run contrary to his repeated assertion that he is ready to go the extra mile to help normalise relations and are particularly unfortunate at this juncture when the peace process, begun on the initiative of the Indian Prime Minister, is delicately poised. Even conceding that his remarks are addressed in the main to his domestic audience, the context in which they have been made and the mixture of belligerence and barely concealed ultimatums to India will not go unnoticed. Gen. Musharraf's domestic compulsions are understandable and in his fight to keep at bay religious fundamentalists who are on the rampage at home he needs all the support from every quarter within and outside the country. As he travels to Washington, it is apparent that one of his objectives in launching the anti-India tirade is to pre-empt the Islamic political opposition at home and discourage the impression that he may be yielding ground under pressure from the Bush administration. The calculated attempt to portray his country as the wronged one vis-à-vis India following the American arms embargo may also serve to secure greater financial and military assistance from the U.S. where he is perceived as a partner and close ally in the war against terror.

In the context of the current peace initiative, this is a shortsighted strategy and is incompatible with his simultaneous offer to take two steps for every step that India takes on improving relations. Closely following his controversial remark to an Indian television channel on the possibility of a second Kargil incursion — its denial as a misquote was nothing more than an afterthought — he returned to the theme during an interview to the BBC's Asia Today programme. He warned that the lull on the Line of Control would not last indefinitely in the absence of movement on the question of Kashmir. This was queer logic since he had promised both the U.S. and the U.K. to end cross-border terrorism. The implication was as clear as it was self-implicating: the claimed lull in cross-border terrorism would end when Pakistan decides to revive support to the militants at a time of its choosing. In an interview to The Times of London, Gen. Musharraf laid out the case for the U.S. and the U.K. to lift the arms embargo against Pakistan and issued another ultimatum. Speaking of a military "imbalance" which he urged the two countries to set right, the Pakistani leader went on to hint darkly of a resort to "non-conventional" arms in the event of war. It was irresponsible resort to nuclear blackmail, not far removed from that practised with little success by the North Korean regime.

Neither Gen. Musharraf's fulminations nor the rhetoric of L.K. Advani during his visit to the U.S. earlier or New Delhi's inexplicable decision to oppose the admission of Pakistan into the Asean Regional Forum will hopefully vitiate the atmosphere of bilateral cordiality that has been achieved so far following Mr.Vajpayee's offer of the hand of friendship on April 18. With as many hurdles as hardliners on either side, the progress has been slow and halting but by subcontinental standards is quite remarkable. An Indian parliamentary team is touring Pakistan and the Delhi-Lahore bus service, which heralded the first of Mr. Vajpayee's peace ventures, is ready to resume. In the absence of direct air connections, the official Pakistan team to discuss the restoration of the suspended bus service reached Delhi via Dubai. Such absurdities serve the interests of the people of neither country.

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