Opinion - News Analysis

Pervez Musharraf and the India-fixation

B. Muralidhar Reddy

The Pakistan President wants important institutions in the country to get rid of their India-centric thinking. Will he follow his own advice?

UNEASY ALLIES? U.S. President George W. Bush and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at a joint press conference in Islamabad. — PHOTO: AP

BEMOANING THE tendency of his countrymen to be "India-centric," in comparing everything in the country with India, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf told a group of senior journalists at his Rawalpindi camp office on Friday last: "They [the Indians] are going in a different direction and we are going in a different direction."

He was at pains to dispel the widespread belief that the latest visit of U.S. President George W. Bush had proved an embarrassment for Pakistan in contrast to the euphoria generated in India. "We are pursuing our national interests as other countries do. We are not in competition with India. India has global and regional aspirations. We do not have such aspirations. Our aspirations are defensive. We want to create jobs, reduce poverty," he told mediapersons while answering questions on the new phase of relations between Washington and New Delhi as reflected in the civilian nuclear deal.

Gen. Musharraf wholeheartedly endorsed a suggestion that it was the Pakistani army and the Foreign Office that had dinned India-centric ideas into the minds of Pakistanis over the last 60 years. He said the Government, the Foreign Office, the political leadership, and the media should try to remove their India fixation, but added with a smile: "The army will still remain India-centric for obvious reasons."

However, Gen. Musharraf could not himself resist the temptation to return to the "India factor" again and again during the interactive session. He ended up doing exactly what he accused other institutions in the country of being guilty for six decades. The session was replete with references, negative and otherwise, to India and implications of developments in India for Pakistan.

The ongoing war of words between Kabul and Islamabad, on the subject of cross-border infiltration, revealed Gen. Musharraf's India obsession. The Pakistan President is convinced that the trouble between the two countries is the handiwork of the northern alliance-dominated Afghan intelligence agencies and the Defence Ministry. He believes that the northern alliance-dominated Hamid Karzai Government, sympathetic to New Delhi, continues to be influenced by "foreign intelligence agencies."

"Those conspiring against Pakistan are still living in the decade of 1990s when the Northern Alliance was being helped by other regional countries in their struggle against the Taliban and we were on the other side. But times have changed and our strategy today is totally different from what it was in the 1990s," he said.

He said there were elements in the Afghan Intelligence set-up, the Defence Ministry and foreign elements that were trying to create problems for Pakistan. "I have given President Bush documented proof of it. General Abizaid the U.S. Centcom chief is also coming to Pakistan and I will discuss the matter with him." Gen. Musharraf said he would ask Gen. Abizaid to end the influence of foreign intelligence agencies on their Afghani counterparts and defence ministry.

The tenor was no different during the reference to the killing of three Chinese engineers in Balochistan just two days before Gen. Musharraf's visit to China in the third week of February. "The killing was clearly meant to embarrass our close ally and friend. It is those very people who are behind the unrest in Balochistan that are behind the killings. We know who is behind them and their motives," Gen. Musharraf said. For several weeks now Pakistan has been accusing India of aiding and abetting nationalists in Balochistan to pose a challenge to the writ of the Government.

On the new American policy vis-à-vis India, the Pakistan President said: "We know in which direction it is targeted." He then went on to speak about the significance of the timing of his visit to China, a week before Mr. Bush's arrival in the subcontinent.

To a question on what impact the latest developments in the region could have on the India-Pakistan dialogue process, Gen. Musharraf said: "We need to look [into] it. Talk all these issues bilaterally as well through other interlocutors." Pointing out that he would expect Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan, he said he did not know why Dr. Singh had not come to Pakistan so far. "But I would also like to see some substantive progress made when and if such a visit takes place," he added.

As Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. Musharraf cannot be faulted for his view that the Pakistan military would continue to "India-centric" in its outlook and philosophy. But it is impractical to expect other institutions in the country to get rid of their India-fixation either.

By virtue of its pre-eminence in every sphere of Pakistani society, the military shapes every important policy. Most of the time, the government of the day and the Foreign Office may not even be in the loop on such matters.

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