Look at the Iran-Pakistan- India Gas pipeline issue. Without considering the ground difficulties, Pakistan has set August 2006 as the deadline to workout an agreement failing which it will follow the bilateral track with Iran and dump India.

When India announced the candidature of Shashi Tharoor for the UN Secretary Generals post, Pakistan came up within twenty four hours with a plan for what is certainly a ‘tit-for-tat’ nomination. It is a different matter though that Islamabad is yet to identify the candidate.

Pakistan knows fully well that it has no chance whatsoever to get past the enigmatic 1+1+3+10= 15 equation in the Security Council, which is firmly tilted in favour of the Indian nominee. +1+3+10=15. A Cuban diplomat once deciphered the equation thus: the first 1 stands for the US; the second 1 for Britain, which automatically follows the US lead. The 3 in the riddle represents France, Russia and China, which demur a lot but fall in after getting some pampering. Once the P5 in agreement, the remaining 10 non-permanent members are left with n option but to say, “We too are with you”.

To get back our India-Pak fixation, infiltration from across the Line of Control has been continuing unabated. It has in fact gone up in the last three months. Incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir at the hands of Pakistan sponsored terrorists have been on the rise. Among the ‘eliminated’ and arrested militants, a large number have been identified as Pakistani nationals.

No less than the Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Kasuri linked the terror attacks in India to the resolution of disputes. (read Kashmir). His foreign office was quick to come to his rescue with a clarification. But that is neither here nor there. Understandably, New Delhi termed the linkage as “appalling”. The Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran rightly made it clear that there can be no “conditionalities in curbing terrorism”.

See the way Pakistan has been refusing to accept that the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan. It has said so even to the Interpol, which issued a red corner notice for him giving his Karachi address.

Observers see a strong nexus between Pakistan’s ISI and Dhaka. The way Bangladesh has been running terrorist training camps for North East militants and blatantly denying their existence just the way Pakistan does it, makes one believe the observers.

So where exactly is the peace process, which is aimed at moving from confrontation to cooperation? One must admit that there is a basic difference of approach between New Delhi and Islamabad in dealing with issues. Pakistan wants self-rule for Jammu and Kashmir, forgetting that it has all the representative institutions in place for self-governance. At the same time it wants to rule Occupied part of Kashmir from Islamabad. It wants demilitarization in Kashmir but is not prepared to withdraw troops from Gilgit and Baltistan. It wants free elections in Jammu and Kashmir but rejects nominations of all the JKLF candidates in POK because they donot accept the finality of its accession with Pakistan.

The sequence of events of the Kargil war is an old story now. The revelations made by former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief that General Musharraf, then army chief, stabbed him as well as the Indian Government in the back by launching the attack, summarises the psyche of President Musharraf. To refuse to accept it would be brushing the reality under the carpet. The Indian Government has so far been doing this only. If Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s statement in Mumbai, the other day that “time has come to launch a total attack on terrorism” is anything to go by, one can hope to see a turn around. Indeed that is the need of the hour.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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