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Significantly, the
US has given the green signal for Indo-Israel cooperation in the
manufacture of military equipment. When India gets the Phalcon
radars, they will be mounted on Russian-built Illyushin-76 cargo
planes of the Indian Air Force to warn of incoming missiles. In all
these days it is India that has been making positive moves. It is
India which was the first to name the High Commissioner to Islamabad
in the person of Shivshankar Menon. India would like to have
immediate civil aviation links, but Pakistan has so far offered only
landing, not overflight rights. India had offered both. The
Samjhauta Express and Lahore bus service remain day-dreams. They
have not yet been put in operation.
Pakistan has taken
no steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in its own
territory. What is worse India, to its shock, found out that
Pakistani terrorists have been occupying about 100 square kilometres
of Indian territory, 35 kms inside the Line of Control around
Dilkaka in Jammu & Kashmir.
Several terrorist
outfits most notably the Lashkar-e-Toiba had apparently been jointly
using the base inside India for planning, coordination, transit and
safe-keeping of arms. But on the theory of better late than never
Indian Armed Forces have now managed to clear 40 per cent of the
area killing some 62 of 350 suspected terrorists. There has been no
word of apology from Islamabad.
Indeed,
infiltration figures have remained practically constant. The figure
was 300 between January and April 2003 compared to 340 the same
period last year. India estimates that some 1,000 jehadis from
Pakistan will cross the Line of Control this year. True some Indians
held prisoners in Pakistan have been released. But according to
knowledgeable sources, hundreds of Indians continue to languish in
Pakistani jails. There is no word about them. Pakistan is agreeable
to put some 70 items on the list of open Indo-Pakistan trade. India
wants trade to be opened up in at least 1,000 items.
Clearly there is a
deadlock. What seems to be the case is that there is a wide-spread
belief in Pakistan that India has taken up the peace initiative out
of military and economic compulsions! Nothing could be more
ridiculous. India remains strong. Unlike Pakistan it is by no
stretch of imagination a 'failed state' and is actually marching
towards prosperity. Stationing troops along the international border
has certainty cost India dearly, but is has been within manageable
limits.
But the military
men who make policy in Islamabad evidently cannot see beyond their
noses. These are the people who had hoped to bring India down to its
knees by a thousand cuts. These are the same people, apparently, who
once pushed the theory that one Pakistani soldier is equal to 10
Indian sepoys. Though defeated three times in over 50 years
Pakistan's arrogant policy-makers have still not learnt their
lessons nor are they willing to face reality.
When Pakistan's
corps commanders met recently, they apparently were still unwilling
to settle for peace with India. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage's visit to Islamabad in the circumstances, has been in
vain. Even after writing off over two billion dollars of debt that
Pakistan owes, the US government has not succeeded in making
Pakistan see the light.
As late as 29 March
this year, a joint statement has been issued by the United States
and Britain demanding that Pakistan respect Line of Control and
fulfill its commitments to stop infiltration. Pakistan could not
care less. But as if to meet pressures from Washington, a senior
Pakistan official has put forth a six-point agenda for a 'structured
dialogue on security issues' to be accepted by India and Pakistan.
In an address to
the UN Conference on Disarmament held in Vienna on 22 May,
Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Riaz A Khokar sought 'foreswearing in
the use of the threat of use of force in settling disputes,
inclusion of a permanent mechanism for bilateral dialogue and
initiation of result-oriented talks for devising mutually acceptable
confidence-building measures in the nuclear field.
He also called for
stabilisation of conventional forces at levels consonant with the
legitimate security needs of States in south Asia and renewed
commitment to jointly combat poverty hunger, illiteracy and disease.
That speech, apparently, was for consumption of Western powers, a
public relations exercise to show the statesman like quality of
Islamabad's vision for at the ground-level there has hardly been any
movement.
For the objective
observer it seems that what Pakistan's diplomats say abroad is
unacceptable to the military planners at home. How long can this
situation last? What message will Advani convey when he meets with
President Bush? Gen Musharraf, too, has been invited to Washington
later in June.
Will the United
States finally seek to intervene in a purposeful manner and read the
Riot Act to Musharraf or will it let the south Asian scene drift
indefinitely, forcing India, finally, to take matters on hand and
teach Pakistan a lesson of a life-time? In his Srinagar address and
subsequently in his speech in Parliament, Vajpayee had said that his
latest offer would be the third and last he would be making.
It would be a
foolish Pakistan to miss this opportunity for settling a long-drawn
out dispute so nobly offered by India but then whoever has ever
given the hate-filled policy-makers in the Pak Military marks for
wisdom?
The
author is a veteran journalist and chief of the Prasar Bharati
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