The fact is that Pakistan is still not willing to do anything to change its inborn hostility towards India. Can we accept as genuine Pakistan’s alleged new preference for a ‘secular’ order or even ‘moderate’ Islam when that nation is built on the foundation of the ‘two-nation’ theory that states that Islam cannot co-exist with any other religion.

Numerous reports have appeared, datelined Pakistan and the US, that suggest that Pakistan is still not convinced that the entire Taliban and other militant organisations it has nurtured over the years should be dismantled. The reason is simple: Pakistan uses fundamentalist and jihadi organisations as a lever against India and also Afghanistan.

Despite all the media hype about Pakistan’s latest offensive against the Taliban within its own territory there are sceptics within Pakistan itself who are not sure how serious is the battle against the fundamentalists. There are media reports that more than half of Pakistanis still see the Taliban in a better light than the Pakistani army. Significantly, the constituency for ‘peace’ with India is barely visible in Pakistan.

There are reports in the Pakistani and Western press that are sceptical about the claims on Taliban casualties. The Pakistani army has refused to show the bodies of the ‘Taliban’ killed. It also doesn’t allow the media to cover its own version of ‘war on terror’. Questions have been asked about the use of artillery and air power to fight the Taliban when the job should have been entrusted to the infantry who can not only clear an area but also hold on to it. It has also been noted with some surprise that the Pakistani ‘war on terror’ is confined to certain urban areas as though all routes to rural Pakistan have been shut to the Taliban and other militants.

As for the number of casualties, the world has no choice but to depend on the figures put out by the Pak army. But refugees who have fled from the conflict areas in Pakistan say that many civilians are also being killed.

The Americans might have been convinced by President Asif Ali Zardari that some troops have been moved from the eastern border with India to the western borders with Afghanistan. If some five - six thousand troops are moved from one area to another in an army of 700,000 or more it hardly sounds impressive. At least 80 percent of the Pak army is still positioned on the Indian side.

Zardari’s statement that he desires ‘peace’ with India or his curious explanation that he did not send his ISI chief to India after the Mumbai attacks last November because the army thought it was ‘too soon’ are obviously part of the ploy to hoodwink the US and other donors who have lined up an impressive $10 billion in aid to Pakistan.

The ISI website, as quoted by the Indian Express the other day, continues to maintain that while Pakistan is innocent of any charge of aiding and abetting acts of terror in India, it is India which is sending terrorists into Pakistan by raining them in Afghanistan! And how does India train and recruit these ‘terrorists’—through its consulates in Afghanistan and dozens of other ‘offices’ located in Afghanistan. For the ISI, Afghanistan has already become an Indian ‘colony’—all the more reason, undoubtedly, for stepping up the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan from their havens in Pakistan.

The ISI discovery of the Indian hand behind the troubles in Pakistan may evoke laughter; it has to be remembered, nevertheless, that it is precisely the kind of fiction it creates that is advanced as ‘facts’ for preparing diabolic plans to subvert and destabilise India.

The purpose of recalling these facts is to submit that the list of ‘dos’ and don’ts’ for India is really irrelevant if Pakistan refuses to budge from its position of pathological hatred and animus towards this country. If any dos and don’ts have to be observed they should be confined to the ‘candle-wallahs’ who can light the ‘peace’ candles even when the Kasabs of Pakistan mow down innocent Indians in our financial capital and then laugh through their trial in a court. A leading expert on military affairs from Pakistan told an audience in Delhi the other day that India should not ‘punish’ her country. The question is when did India ever ‘punish’ Pakistan, even when the provocation was grave? Scores of Indian commentators have been asking India not to do anything that might ‘divert’ attention of the government in Islamabad from the fight against the Taliban.

How is it assumed that India will do ‘something’ that will give Pakistan an excuse to abandon the fight, sham though it may well be, against the Taliban? The last time when the entire nation expected the government of India to do ‘something’ against Pakistan was in November 2008. Some people might say that India should have taken some ‘action’ when infiltration from across the Line of Control and other areas in Kashmir went up. India did nothing of the sort, much to the disappointment of the majority of people.

It is presumptuous, indeed, preposterous to think that India is contemplating ‘action’ against Pakistan that will provide it the ‘excuse’ it is looking for to keep all its troops on the border with India. Actually, the question here is why should Pakistan look for an ‘excuse’ at all or hesitate to shift more troops from its eastern border to the troubled areas inside the country when it knows very well that India has a ‘no first attack on Pakistan’ policy?

Zardari told his American audience that he did not see any threat to his country coming from India. But his army does not share his belief. It means that contrary to his claim on American TV interviews, he allows his army to dictate terms to him.

Those who are busy asking India to do or not do certain things to ‘help’ Pakistan should really ponder if Pakistan is really in need of any ‘help’ when there are so many doubts about its intentions to eliminate the terror network on its soil.

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