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VIEWPOINT: FIFTH COLUMN
War
And Pretence
Alliance
with Pakistan exposes the hollowness of US claims of fighting terrorism
By Tavleen Singh
 You
would think that faced with one of the gravest terrorist threats ever,
the US would try-just for a moment-to understand the concerns of a country
like India which has suffered terrorism for 20 years now. Terrorism that
can be laid almost entirely at Pakistan's door. But, no, judging from
US Secretary of State Colin Powell's statements, this is not going to
happen. Not only is the US ready to ignore the role Pakistan has played
in the spread of international terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, it
is even ready to congratulate General Pervez Musharraf for his "bold
and courageous" behaviour and forgive him for not doing more to hand
over Osama bin Laden sooner.
 Pakistan's
military ruler is sorry, he says, for not doing this in time to prevent
the dreadful attacks of September 11 and the war that resulted and the
Americans are so grateful for this apology that they are ready to help
Pakistan get out of the economic mess it finds itself in. It is a mess,
we must remember, that can be attributed largely to Pakistan's avid sponsorship
of jehad in Afghanistan and Kashmir. This jehad has been the only foreign
policy that Pakistan has pursued in our neighbourhood and unsurprisingly
its economy has paid the price. But Pakistan is not just forgiven, it
is to be rewarded with economic aid and military cooperation. So we in
India can expect the situation in Kashmir to worsen rather than get better.
The US is not prepared to acknowledge that for
five years now Kashmir's so-called freedom movement has been transformed
into a much bigger war. Despite India's attempts to point out that the
"freedom fighters" being killed in Kashmir are mainly of foreign
origin, despite its attempts to show the world that groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba
are based in Pakistan and that the Jaish-e-Mohammed has direct links with
bin Laden's Al Qaida network, the Americans apparently remain unconvinced.
When US President George W. Bush turned to Pakistan
for help, it had seemed to us in India that Pakistan had no choice. That
it was a pawn, not a player. It is now becoming increasingly obvious that
Pakistan is emerging as a player of considerable importance. It is, we
hear, to avoid hurting Pakistan's feelings that the Northern Alliance's
ragtag band of anti-Taliban warriors in Afghanistan is not being given
enough support to take Kabul. Pakistan does not want an unfriendly government
in Afghanistan, so it will be allowed to choose a new government of its
liking just as it did earlier when it created and nurtured the Taliban.
Bin Laden was as much a part of the Taliban regime as Mullah Omar is and
you would think that the Americans would have noticed that without direct
support from the Pakistani Government neither would have been able to
grow and thrive. But Musharraf has said sorry, so he is to be forgiven.
Meanwhile, violence continues in Kashmir. Violence
that would be easier for us to control if we were not dealing with foreign
Islamic warriors who come and go from Pakistan as they please and who
use Pakistan as their base and for fund-raising activities. This is done
openly but America is ready to close its eyes. Bush says, "I think
it is very important that India and Pakistan stand down during our activities
in Afghanistan, for that matter forever." His secretary of state
says, "We think that dialogue on Kashmir is important."
So why is there no dialogue with the Taliban?
Why have there been no attempts to negotiate with bin Laden? And, when
the Americans urge us towards dialogue are they aware that they expect
us to negotiate the future of an Indian state only because the Muslim
population in that state believes that it has a right to a special status
because they are Muslims? Is the US aware that it was in an attempt to
keep Muslims happy that India was broken into two countries in the first
place?
It is necessary to ask these questions when
you keep in mind that Bush did not know where Pakistan was or who it was
ruled by till just over a year ago. Since then he has been forced by events
to take a crash course on our region but it still looks as if the historical
nuances escape him. At the moment it is only geography that matters and
Pakistan is taking full advantage of its geographical position.
Pakistan cannot be blamed for revelling in its
new position as the best friend of the world's only superpower. It is
America's duplicity and shameless hypocrisy that is harder to understand.
It is also very hard to understand exactly what Bush means when he asks
India and Pakistan to "stand down forever" on Kashmir. When
he finishes with his war against bin Laden we can only hope he finds time
for a few explanations and for a closer understanding of where Islamic
fundamentalism comes from and the kind of countries that have nurtured
it. Bin Laden would not exist without the support of these countries.
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