There used to be a time when retired Indian military personnel (including the current Governor of Jammu and Kashmir) were fond of rushing to the Press to demand a unilateral Indian withdrawal from the Siachen Glacier borrowing and quoting out of context Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous statement that “not a blade of grass grows there” to make it out that the bleak landscape has no strategic value.

It was refreshing to hear the current Chief of Army Staff Gen J.J.Singh rejecting Pakistani demands for a withdrawal from Siachen without first clearing delineating on maps (in the same manner as the Line of Control was drawn on officially authenticated maps) the present positions of both armies in that part of the world.

That has been India’s position since the seventh round of Defence Secretary-level talks and Pakistan has on its part has been demanding that India should withdraw to the pre-1984 position when it moved in to stall a Pakistani intrusion (much as in Kargil in 1999) in the guise of a mountaineering expedition. Such was the chill thereafter that former Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao (who moved the resolution in Parliament reiterating that the whole of Jammu and Kashmir – including the portion illegally occupied by Pakistan in 1948 – as being an integral part of the Union of India, an “atoot ang”) to put it bluntly to Pakistan that the only thing left to negotiate with Pakistan was the withdrawal of Pakistani troops from Pak-Occupied Kashmir). The chill lasted till Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee made his opening to Pakistan at Agra. And even then it did not work.

Vajpayee soon discovered how little reason he has to trust Musharraf when Pakistani terrorists attacked the seat of Indian nationhood, the Parliament. In much the same manner Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is discovering that even in the face of the horrendous experience of the earthquake in Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan has not thought it fit to put a stop to infiltration across the Line of Control or to launch terrorist attacks in marketplaces in New Delhi.

Vajpayee launched the Indian Army towards the borders with Pakistan in Operation Parakaram and maintained that eyeball-to-eyeball position for nearly a year managing only to give the US reason to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir which till then was sought to be kept “bilateral” as per the Simla Agreement. It is his legacy that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should feel free to suggest to Manmohan Singh that India should bow to Musharraf’s demand and de- militarise Jammu and Kashmir without any concomitant requirement to end, demonstrably, the cross border terrorism!

Mr Manmohan Singh has reiterated that demilitarization of the Siachen Glacier can only happen if the Actual Position on the Ground (or the Actual Ground Position Line or AGPL) is agreed by both countries because that can be the only reference point in the snow to survey and supervise and maintain free of intruders by whatever technical means the two sides agree upon.

Pakistani insistence that India withdraw unilaterally from Siachen is part of its gambit to undermine the P.V.Narasimha Rao resolution in Parliament declaring the whole of Jammu and Kashmir to be an integral part of India. It needs to be recalled that in the midst of all the posturing India did push it in sideways that among the topics that the two countries need to discuss is the withdrawal of Pakistani troops from the territory it has occupied in Jammu and Kashmir. Which, in short, puts things in perspective?

At SAARC Pakistan has also floated the joke of a trial balloon called “self-governance” for the people on both sides of the Line of Control -- a kind of “non-suggestion”. It needs to be asked of Musharraf this kind of “democracy” is to be conducted by a show of hands as has happened in the recent local bodies elections in Pakistan. Doing away with the concept of a secret ballot in elections in a democracy does make a fetish out of “transparency”. It is the kind of transparency in which the man/woman who dares not to show his/her hand could be marked for future retribution at the hands of the local goon called the “nazim”.

Or are we to introduce the kind of elections as in Pakistan which recently saw a spate of sectarian killings in a land which was supposed to be “PaK” (pure/holy) to Muslims of both denominations. In fact Jinnah did have that vision but is it extant in Pakistan today? Such is democracy and “self-governance” in Pakistan that the all-powerful President-General has refused to address the joint session of the Pakistan National Assembly (as laid down in the much-raped Constitution) for fear of facing the wrath of the “elected representatives” who have not allowed the farcical body to function since it was created three years ago and it has failed to do much legislative business.

Indian spokespersons did right to point out that Gilgit and Baltistan in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir have not seen much of “self-governance” since the Pakistan Army was handed over the garrison at Gilgit by a man named Major Brown and it then proceed to slaughter troops in Skardu which refused to surrender to it. Of course, as General Musharraf insists, we must not look so deep into history if we are to make history but looking strictly at current events there is little that encourages hopes of democratic self-governance in the current state of Pakistani polity ruled as it is by a Chief of Army Staff. Would it be too impertinent to suggest to the General that as a first step he should demilitarize the presidential palace in Rawalpindi?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been suave in his responses to both the suggestions on demilitarization and “self-governance” it is reassuring that India’s positions remains that till the “trust deficit”, as described by his Pakistani counterpart, is removed and there is reason for both sides to believe that actions of both sides promote genuine trust Pakistan will not be allowed to resort to subterfuge.

The earthquake has become occasion for a new kind of invasion in the portion in control of Pakistan. For one the jihadi terrorists have full sway of all that they survey. They are, of course, feeding, clothing and sheltering the victims of the earthquake (which should have been the first priority of the Pakistan Army) but they have also established a permanent base in a portion of Jammu and Kashmir from where they are already launching raid not just into the other side of the Line of Control but also as deep as in New Delhi itself.

There is, therefore, no need to make a headlong rush to demolish our defences in misplaced trust on anything Musharraf says (because he can turn vicious in a flash as he demonstrated in New York when confronted with the abuse of raped women at the hands of the military establishment. His guard fell and the suave façade was abandoned. That is the Musharraf we should be prepared to deal with all the street-smartness of Daryaganj off which lies Neharwali Gali where Musharraf was born.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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