Date:03/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120354060500.htm

Kerala

Tharoor: rope in U.S. to put pressure on Pakistan

Staff Reporter

To take action against terrorists

Shashi Tharoor

THIRUVNANTHAPURAM: India should—taking advantage of the visit of the Secretary of State of the United States Condoleeza Rice—rope in the United States to put pressure on Pakistan to make that country do the things it should against terrorists, the former Undersecretary General of the United Nations Shashi Tharoor has said.

The U.S. had long been an ally of Pakistan and now it was a good friend of India as well. The U.S. had a lot of interests, economically, in India. In the light of what happened in Mumbai recently, the U.S. would be the best bet for India to get Pakistan take action against terrorism, Dr. Tharoor said.

He was interacting with students on the Kariavattom campus of the University of Kerala here on Tuesday during his first visit there. The programme was organised by the Department of Politics.

Dr. Tharoor said this while answering a question on third party mediation on the Kashmir issue and whether terror attacks had their roots in the Kashmir issue. He said it was India which took the Kashmir question to the U.N. Originally, the king of Kashmir wanted to remain independent.

However, when his kingdom was invaded by Pakistan, he acceded to India. The popular leader at that time Sheik Abdullah too was for joining with India. From 1948 to 1971 there was active U.N. participation on the Kashmir question.

In the Shimla Accord, it was stated that India and Pakistan would work bilaterally to resolve the Kashmir problem. India took such a stand because there was growing realisation in New Delhi that U.N. involvement in Kashmir only furthered the intransigence of elements in Pakistan who did not want to solve the Kashmir issue.

If there was no Kashmir issue and if India ceased to be the enemy of Pakistan, the people of that nation would start wondering why a disproportionate amount of that nation’s wealth should go towards maintaining the military.

“In India, the State has an army and in Pakistan the army has the State,” he said.

On minority communities and the fight on terror, Dr. Tharoor said the Indian State should actively reach out to the minority communities to ensure their adequate representation in the nation’s security services. Kerala may be an exception, but in other parts of the country Muslims were grossly under-represented in the police force and other security services.

Dr. Tharoor said, in reply to a student who wanted to know whether politics could be taken out of development, that politics should be a means to ensuring the processes of development.