War on terror and India’s stake
By
Kuldip Nayar
THE
burning of Islamabad’s Marriott hotel that Indian channels showed at length is
still etched in the memory of horrified people. They are worried about
Pakistan. Even the hawks do not conceal their anxiety.
The
intelligentsia’s concern is that the nascent democratic government in Islamabad
might not be able to cope with the likes of the Al Qaeda and Taliban and might
have to depend on the military which would want its price.
People
do not know how far the Al Qaeda-Taliban combine has penetrated Pakistan. But
the belief is that the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and, to a
large extent, the NWFP province, is under the control of the Taliban. Were they
to ‘capture’ more territory, what would be its effect on India is the greatest
worry. President Asif Ali Zardari’s remark that “the Taliban have an upper
hand” is all the more unnerving. America agrees with him.
A
Pakistani television commentator has challenged Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani to travel from Kohat to Bannu. The commentator’s contention is that the
Pakistan government had already “withdrawn” from this area. If this is true,
there is some truth in the repeated allegation that former President Pervez
Musharraf, even while in uniform, was never serious about curbing Al Qaeda and
the Taliban. He found it an effective way to milch America. That he connived at
the intervention of the US troops on Pakistani soil is an open secret.
In
contrast, Zardari’s statement or that of army chief Gen Kayani that Pakistan’s
sovereignty would not be allowed to be trifled with has come as a welcome
surprise. Islamabad is defending its territory and there are signs of it when
its guns drove away American helicopters the other day. Pakistan is careful not
to engage the superpower but whatever Islamabad is doing to keep its dignity
intact needs to be commended.
I do
not think that the Al Qaeda-Taliban combine is seeking territory in Pakistan.
They want the northern areas which would help them to recapture Afghanistan
which was under their rule until they were pushed out by nationalist Afghan
forces with the help of America.
In
fact, the US is responsible for the birth of the Taliban. During the Cold War
when Washington wanted to bleed Moscow to death, America trained and armed
fundamentalists to oust the irreligious Soviet Union from Afghanistan. America
won the Cold War when the Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of what
happened to it in Afghanistan. Those fundamentalists are today’s Taliban and
they have the weapons which were liberally provided by America.
Indian
civil society does realise that Al Qaeda’s progress in Pakistan is a danger.
Already the presence of Al Qaeda has been reported in Kerala, India’s
southern-most state, and in Kashmir, the northern-most part. An intelligence
agency has linked the recent bomb blasts in the country to the outfit.
What
is not probably appreciated amply is that Pakistan’s war against the Taliban is
India’s war too. If ever Pakistan goes under, India’s first line of defence
would collapse. The Taliban would have secured the launching pad to attack
India’s values of democracy and liberalism which do not fit into their scheme
of things. These are the same Taliban who destroyed the Buddha statues at
Bamiyan despite the appeal of the entire civilised world.
Terrorism
is the means, and a ‘Talibanistan’ is the end. New Delhi and Islamabad should
jointly fight against the menace. The two had decided at one time to set up a
joint mechanism to fight terror. There is still nothing on the ground. Some
joint action should have been visible after the blasts in Delhi and Islamabad.
Mutual suspicions are so strong that they cannot override them even when the
enemy is at work from within. One hopes that the New York meeting between Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and President Zardari will change the scenario as both
are keen on normalising relations.
Making
peace with the militants or having a ceasefire, as proposed by certain
influential quarters in Pakistan, may stall the Taliban but not defeat them.
Terrorism is a cancer as Zardari has diagnosed correctly, and it must be
eliminated. The villain of the piece is Musharraf who said he was fighting
against the Taliban when he was conniving at their penetration. He should be
put on the mat for having aggravated the situation. His plan to have them in
Afghanistan to gain ‘strategic depth’ for Pakistan started the whole thing.
There
is a lesson for New Delhi which is a sad picture of inaction and ineptness when
assessed in terms of action taken against communal forces. Law and order has
always been a state subject. Still the centre’s response has been lukewarm. It
sent to Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala a piece of advice on the
lines of Article 355 which enjoins upon the Union to protect states against
external aggression and internal disturbance. Had New Delhi’s order gone under
Article 355 itself, the Bajrang Dal, a SIMI among Hindus, would not have openly
butchered Christians and burnt churches. Surprisingly, there is no ban on the
Bajrang Dal. New Delhi has done well to reject the demand of the Bharatiya
Janata Party for bringing back the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act which
authorised the state to detain people for months without trial. It was used
against the Naxalites and Muslims mercilessly. In this atmosphere, the Muslims
would have been the target.
Terrorism,
no doubt, leaves death and destruction in its wake. But the most fearsome
fallout is that the confidence of the people is shaken. Governments can see,
after every event, the gaps in their intelligence and other apparatus and
promise to do better. But the impact of the incidents may well be irreparable
because certain communities feel alienated.
This
is what has happened after the encounter at Zakir Bagh in Delhi where two
terrorists and one police inspector were killed. The debate over the veracity
of the ‘encounter’ is still raging. The locality believes it was stage-managed.
Why such a feeling arises is because of the credibility gap between the people
and the authorities.
The
matter is much more serious: Muslims and Christians have lost faith in the
fairness of the state. This will be hard to restore if the secular forces do
not assert themselves and retrieve Muslims, Christians and, more so, the Hindus
from the bias and prejudice in which many are stuck.
Meanwhile,
a survey conducted by a television network in four big cities — Delhi, Mumbai,
Kolkata and Chennai — has shown that 67 per cent of the people feel insecure.
They are haunted by the fear that they do not know what would happen to them if
they were to step out of their homes. This is, indeed, a sad reflection on the
central and state governments.
The
writer is a leading journalist based in Delhi.
Source: Dawn, Karanchi
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