India Must Fight Its Own War

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:52:42 EST

What happens if extremist strike India again? If terrorist attack on some Indian city; within hours New Delhi blames Pakistan; Islamabad swears it is not involved. The western media seems to encourage India to ‘teach Pakistan' a lesson; then friendly governments work behind the scenes to counsel restraint. ‘Friendly governments' are unlikely to be friendly this time.

In 2002, following the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament building in December 2001, India massed troops on Pakistan's border. As Pakistan also mobilized its troops, more than half a million men armed with the most lethal weapons were locked in a scary eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation for months.

The anxiety that US showed in 2002 to end the confrontation was for obvious reasons: the Taliban had just been defeated in November 2001, and Islamabad had started re-enacting its role as a front line ally. George Bush & Tony Blair were active behind the scenes and counseled restraint, and finally a thaw began. Former PM of India Mr. Vajpayee, had rushed the troops to Pakistan's borders, retraced his steps. In January 2004 he visited Islamabad and agreed to begin ‘a composite dialogue'.

When there is another terror attack in India, there will be no one to counsel restraint, and India most probably will be left to itself to think whether a military adventure against Pakistan will be worth its while. Ultimately it is Pakistan's conventional strength, rather than nuclear deterrent, which India takes into account, for Indian generals know very well Pakistan will not give them a walkover.

There is only one way in which Pakistan can tackle the aftermath of the next terror attack in India: Islamabad must genuinely convince the world of its innocence, because Pakistan itself is being cannibalized by terror. There is no need to do some ‘explaining' to New Delhi because of its rigid attitude. The problem is basically with our diplomacy, for we have failed to present to the world our side of the picture i.e. the truth.

Asking Pakistan and India to cooperate is great naiveté. Given their adversarial relationship they are unlikely to cooperate, and the joint anti-terror mechanism agreed to at Havana between Pervez Musharraf and Man Mohan Singh is a non-starter.

The next terrorist attack on Indian soil is merely a question of time. Pakistan's diplomatic corps must be ready to face the storm on its own. Briefly, Pakistan must tell the world that India must fight its own war on terror. Pakistan is doing this on its own; why does India shirk its responsibility and take comfort in blaming Pakistan?

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India Must Fight Its Own War