news details |
|
|
| India-Pakistan talks at this stage will send a wrong signal | | | RUSTAM
JAMMU, Feb 5: Strategic affairs experts in the country, plus the Indian intelligence agencies and persons at the helm of affairs in the South and North Blocks, housing the offices of Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Defence Minister and Home Minister, knew it full well that the Islamic radicals and certain terrorist organizations, based in Pakistan, are part of the Pakistani “arsenal against India”.
This – apart from the spurt in infiltration bids in recent times, attacks on the Indian troops along the border at regular intervals and several actions on the part of the Pakistani Rangers and dreaded Inter-Service intelligence (ISI) operatives of the Pakistani to breach the border fence at vulnerable points to facilitate infiltration – was one of the causes that didn’t allow the resumption of composite dialogue process between India Pakistan.
The stand of the Government on India was that since Islamabad had not brought to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks and that since Islamabad has failed to control the terrorist organizations, based in and funded by Islamabad, as also failed to destroy the terrorist-training camps (over 40 in number), New Delhi just couldn’t afford to resume the dialogue process with Pakistan. Yet another refrain of the Government of India was that since Islamabad continued to remain belligerent and since it had willfully refused to cooperate with India in its bid to spoil the Indian pitch in Kashmir and elsewhere, the idea of resumption of talks with Islamabad could not be entertained.
The third factor was the mood of the bloodied and convulsed Indian nation. The national mood was against any move designed to engage the aggressor and what called “rogue” and “failed state” in dialogue. Instead, the national mood required the Government of India to adopt a hard line towards Pakistan overlooking the fact that Pakistan was a nuclear state.
The situation as it exists in the country suggests that neither the national mood nor the ground situation in the country and nor the Pakistani attitude has changed a bit. And it is at this juncture that a news has emanated from New Delhi that “the stalled India-Pakistan talks…are all set to restart with the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries meeting immediately after the SAARC Home Ministers’ Summit in Islamabad from February 26 to 28”. The report that emanated from New Delhi also suggests the “resumption of the composite dialogue…after the Prime Ministers’ meeting during the 2-day-long SAARC Summit at Thimpu” to be held towards the end of April.
Significantly, the news has emanated at a time when the United States Intelligence Community’s Annual Threat Assessment (USICATA) “has conveyed to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that “Pakistan regards some militant groups as part of its ‘strategic arsenal’ to counter India” and that, according to it, this strategy will “limit Pakistan’s effort to root out extremist forces”. To be more exact, the US Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, has said: “Islamabad’s conviction that militant groups are an important part of its strategic arsenal to counter India’s military and economic advantages will continue to limit Pakistan’s incentive to pursue an across-the-board effort against extremism”. He said so on February 2.
It’s true that the US Director of National Intelligence and others in the United States are interested in a situation that bars Islamabad or some Pakistani political leaders and military officials from extending support to Al-Qaeda, which is a major threat to the United States. It’s also true that the basic objective of the United States is to make maximum use of Pakistan to wipe out the Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives operating in the frontier areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. After all, every sovereign country evolves and pursues a foreign policy that only suits its paramount geo-political interests.
But what the US Director of National Intelligence has said is what the concerned Indians already believe in. It was expected that the powers-that-be in New Delhi would take a serious note of the US Intelligence Community’s Annual Threat Assessment and reorient their strategy accordingly. Instead, they have, it appears, overlooked it. This is the only conclusion one can draw from the news that emanated from New Delhi the other day.
This is neither statesmanship nor statecraft. This is something that has all the potential of making Pakistan believe that India can be coerced and blackmailed through an aggressive foreign policy. The idea of resumption of the stalled composite dialogue process with Pakistan would surely send a wrong signal and lower the morale of our security forces involved in countering and neutralizing insurgents, mercenaries and radical forces, who are backed to the hilt by Islamabad. New Delhi needs to review its stand and pursues a foreign policy the countries like the United States and China pursue.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
