The Telegraph
August 15 , 2008
It is no longer a routine allegation posted by New Delhi. The American administration too is convinced of the genuineness of the complaint: the recent attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, resulting in heavy casualties, was masterminded by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
Goerge W. Bush, reports suggest, is infuriated no end.
It is touch-and-go for the 123 Agreement, the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group and the American Congress are yet to put their seal of approval on it — he does not want any distractions at this delicate moment.
The president of the United States of America did not allow grass to grow under his feet. He lifted his telephone and gave the prime minister of Pakistan a severe dressing down.
Who, George W. Bush demanded, was in charge of the ISI? This was his way of telling off the Pakistanis: their prime minister was a nincompoop, they must, pronto, tighten up their affairs, or else...
All this is lovely stuff for the Indian media and for the average Indian citizen long habituated to treat Pakistan as Enemy Number One.
All this is lovely stuff for the Indian media and for the average Indian citizen long habituated to treat Pakistan as Enemy Number One.
It is also some anodyne for the agony caused by the cruel killing and maiming of compatriots. But kindly detach your mind from the narrow groove of subjectivity and patriotic emotions.
Think how a sensitive, rational-minded Pakistani is bound to react to the American president’s outburst.
Pakistan is formally a sovereign, independent country. It is a member of the United Nations, enjoying equal status with all other member-countries. And yet the head of government of another country — never mind if that country happens to be the world’s most powerful — considers it his prerogative to treat Pakistan’s prime minister as a lowly menial whom he can call to account at all hours. Has not the Pakistani citizen the right to explode in anger?
Imagine an analogous situation. What could happen were President Bush to pick up his telephone and convey to our prime minister his sense of deep dissatisfaction with the way the latter was managing the country’s affairs?
Imagine an analogous situation. What could happen were President Bush to pick up his telephone and convey to our prime minister his sense of deep dissatisfaction with the way the latter was managing the country’s affairs?
New Delhi has a no-good Research and Analysis Wing, its finance minister has goofed up the management of the economy, and inflation is running high, and how dare India’s minister for external affairs take a trip to Iran and try to get chummy with those nuke-loving b———?
Were the occupant of the White House to venture into such tomfoolery, India would no doubt witness a mass upsurge, protest rallies would be held across the country, and even our extra-docile media would write one or two blistering editorial articles informing the world’s mightiest power where to get off.
Were the occupant of the White House to venture into such tomfoolery, India would no doubt witness a mass upsurge, protest rallies would be held across the country, and even our extra-docile media would write one or two blistering editorial articles informing the world’s mightiest power where to get off.
But because it is Pakistan’s prime minister who is at the receiving end, we choose to keep quiet. We not only keep mum, but we also consider it to be an occasion for celebration. And the Pakistanis themselves, while they might burn up inside, can do little at the moment.
They are, by now, a wiser lot, they know that the US is in effective control of their country. Pakistan has been a strategic partner of the US since the early Fifties.
It has been, in the course of the past half a century, sucked so much into the American orbit that its rulers — even if they are elected by popular vote — rule by the grace of the US administration. In any number of instances in the not-too-distant past, the person named as prime minister of the country — or finance minister, or army chief — had to be first cleared with Foggy Bottom bureaucrats.
The Americans therefore feel it altogether in order that in case things go wrong here and there with Pakistan’s defence or security set-up, they have the right to step in. While some amongst the new generation of the Pakistani middle class may get restless, the country’s politicians of diverse hues have been so conditioned that they would not even bother to think about it.
Can one be at all sure that Pakistan today is not the advance mirror image of what India is going to be tomorrow? Once the 123 Agreement becomes operational, it would be a new learning curve for Indians too.
The chief negotiator of the nuclear deal on behalf of the US has already gone on record: there is no scope for ambiguity, the 123 Agreement is in harmony with the Hyde Act. The act does not beat about the bush; if India hopes to obtain the advantages enumerated in the agreement, this country’s foreign policy would have to conform to the overall strategic interests of the US. India might even have to send combat troops to a territory — any territory — the Americans have chosen to invade, and fight side by side with the invaders.
Or have coming events already started to cast their shadow? With the recent series of incendiary devices exploding in different cities — and unearthing of some devices which did not explode — things have started moving fast. At the recent SAARC meeting in Colombo, India’s prime minister declaimed in a stentorian voice that terrorism is the greatest danger facing the south Asian countries, it is time to form a united front against terror. He could not be more wrong. It is poverty, illiteracy and social inequalities that pose the acutest challenge to these countries. You have to dig only a little bit deep. Hunger and social injustice breed hatred and discontent, these, in turn, induce disgruntled elements to give vent to their emotions through occasional acts of terror — and to encourage others to follow their lead. Each poor country had, and has, its own particular problems. What is, however, currently taking place is an attempt to browbeat countries such as India to adopt the official American agenda of fighting terrorism as their own and to reckon the perceived enemy of the US as their own enemy.
Or have coming events already started to cast their shadow? With the recent series of incendiary devices exploding in different cities — and unearthing of some devices which did not explode — things have started moving fast. At the recent SAARC meeting in Colombo, India’s prime minister declaimed in a stentorian voice that terrorism is the greatest danger facing the south Asian countries, it is time to form a united front against terror. He could not be more wrong. It is poverty, illiteracy and social inequalities that pose the acutest challenge to these countries. You have to dig only a little bit deep. Hunger and social injustice breed hatred and discontent, these, in turn, induce disgruntled elements to give vent to their emotions through occasional acts of terror — and to encourage others to follow their lead. Each poor country had, and has, its own particular problems. What is, however, currently taking place is an attempt to browbeat countries such as India to adopt the official American agenda of fighting terrorism as their own and to reckon the perceived enemy of the US as their own enemy.
Once crushing terrorism is defined as the holiest of holy duties, it is fortuitously good business for ruling politicians. It takes the mind of ordinary men and women from the graver issues of life such as poverty, mass unemployment, skyrocketing prices, and all that. There are other pay-offs as well. The recent surge of terrorist violence has enabled the authorities in New Delhi to resuscitate their pet theme of having a Federal Investigation Agency in the image of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US. The Centre already has a national security advisor, a National Security Council, a Central Bureau of Investigation and an Intelligence Branch, apart from several police agencies, established in direct contravention of the provisions of the Constitution, including the Central Reserve Police and the Industrial Reserve Police Force.
However, the urge to further centralize power is insatiable. Such concentration of authority would amount little, in concrete terms, towards increasing the effectiveness of the security system. For a huge country like India, ensuring blanket security for every nook and corner is an impossibility. The technology of terror has gone global along with everything else. There are enough groups of alienated people in different parts of the country, they could easily get hold of state-of-the-art technology, cause mayhem in some random spots and escape undetected. The official army of terrorist-hunters will grow a little wiser after every event.
Such accretion of fresh wisdom will, however, be of little avail. Terror will find other targets, other strategies, other devices, and the country could exhaust its entire national income trying to develop countervailing instruments to quash terrorism. There are infinitely better ways of utilizing the meagre resources of a still-very-poor-country, and which, in the long run, will be able to take care of terror at its roots.
Such accretion of fresh wisdom will, however, be of little avail. Terror will find other targets, other strategies, other devices, and the country could exhaust its entire national income trying to develop countervailing instruments to quash terrorism. There are infinitely better ways of utilizing the meagre resources of a still-very-poor-country, and which, in the long run, will be able to take care of terror at its roots.
