Columns: Right Angle: Kill The Neighbour!

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The life of a diplomat having to change tack from being the emissary of a democratic regime to being the defender of military rule isn't enviable. To his credit, the affable Pakistani High Commissioner to India Ashraf Jehangir Qazi has tried to make the best of a bum deal. Yet, there are limits to how much even he can charm his way into the hearts of the let's-love-Pakistan-at-all-costs classes. Somewhere along the line the proverbial slip begins to show.

As it did in his interview in The Asian Age last week. Asked about the conference of self-proclaimed terrorists organised by the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Muridke, Qazi had an ingenuous answer. "We have to allow people who express views with which we may differ to also get together, it is part of democracy." Coming from the representative of a regime that has just been dubbed "unconstitutional" by as staid a body as the Commonwealth, that is a bit thick. But it's an answer that many have come to expect from a Pakistani establishment caught between a disoriented elite that wants trains to run on time and the emergent jehadis with a radical mission. Nawaz Sharif couldn't reconcile the twin impulses and became the easy scapegoat for the army's humiliation in Kargil. Now, Parvez Musharraf is trying to manage the contradictions. With oodles of sympathy and understanding of those Indians for whom bliss is the constant assurance of visas to Lahore.

It's a sympathy that wouldn't have been misplaced if it could be established that only military rule stands between responsible governance and adventurism in Pakistan. Unfortunately, there is a mismatch between projection and reality. It's one thing for the military to project agreeable individuals like Qazi in Delhi, Akbar Ahmed in London and Maleeha Lodhi in Washington but there is a seamy underside that India has to constantly confront. It's an underside that earnest busybodies from the West, pressing for immediate resumption of bilateral dialogue, seem to conveniently overlook.

Take Pakistan's encouragement of cross-border terrorism. The amount of money poured into the Kashmir jehad by a state that is allegedly tottering on the brink of bankruptcy is astonishing. According to intelligence estimates, Islamabad now subsidises terrorist groups to the tune of $5 million (Rs 21.5 crore) each month. A major beneficiary is the All Party Hurriyat Conference. In addition, it pays terrorists a bonus for every Indian soldier killed: Rs 7,000 to the rank of major, Rs 50,000 for a lieutenant colonel and Rs 1 lakh for a Brigadier and above. Each terrorist is paid between Rs 2,000 and Rs 8,000 per month and in case of "martyrdom" their families are paid a pension. It's a different matter that many families have been paid in counterfeit notes produced by the United Jehad Council's "mint" in Muzaffarabad.

These are chilling facts and ones that the Government must publicise in its long overdue White Paper. If only to remind the agonised visa seekers that what we are witnessing in Pakistan isn't just the subversion of an imperfect democracy but the maturation of a terrorist state. The generous hospitality of individual Pakistanis shouldn't beguile us into forgetting that we are also dealing with an international problem.

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