Indian Defence Review

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, in New York.

No surprises, it had to happen – Nawaz Sharif revealing his badmash (punk) side! So, finally he says he had a dream of seeing Indian Kashmir free and hoped to see it happen during his lifetime. It is not clear when this dream started haunting him – studying at St Anthony’s in Punjab, when summoned for contempt of court by Pakistan’s Supreme Court in 1997, when feigning ignorance during the Kargil Conflict in 1999, when booted out of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia by Musharraf or the re-tutoring he received from his Saudi mentors in exile? The latter possibility is more as indicative by his recent conduct; kowtowing to radicals, younger brother doling millions of rupees to terrorist organizations in Punjab, paralysis in bringing propagators of 26/11 Mumbai attack to book despite mounting evidence, Hafiz Saeed appointed chief commissar (read advisor) to the ISI in shaping Pakistan’s India policy, as reported by The Mail recently, so on and so forth.

The fact is that Nawaz Sharif had proved he was a Badmash right from the Kargil Conflict days, hand in glove with radicals otherwise he had little chance of becoming the Prime Minister yet again with institutionalized radicalization having taken Pakistan to much higher levels since 1999. So, today this Sheikh Chilli hugs radical mullahs Hafiz Saeed and Zaeef in the hope of realizing this dream that has hounded him for ages. Not that the same dream is not simultaneously being nurtured through institutionalized radicalization in seminaries across the board in Pakistan and through oaths administered to officers passing out from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul, who till recent years had the added privilege of proximity of the illustrious Osama-bin-Laden himself and possibly his speeches in person as a distinguished guest speaker.

Addressing the budget session of the sham government in POK recently, Sharif stated, “Kashmir is a flashpoint and can trigger a fourth war between the two nuclear powers at anytime.” The Dawn also quoted Sharif in saying that the Kashmir issue should be settled according to the aspirations of the people and the UN resolutions as peace in the region was not possible without it. Masquerading as the peace dove on becoming prime minister, why he has chosen to speak in a forked tongue at this point of time can be argued but he sure wants to save his neck in the event of Talibanization of Pakistan.

Apparently, he is getting the jitters with the return of Mullah Fazlullah to Pakistan to officially assume control of the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) post killing of Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike. What Sharif may or may not know is that while officially, Fazlullah was supposed forced to flee to Afghanistan in 2009 because of the so called ‘push’ by Pakistani army, in actual fact the ISI had facilitated Fazlullah shifting to Afghanistan, who was lodged all these years in Kunar, Afghanistan as the special guest of Afghan Taliban. The latent fear behind Sharif’s poker face is that he can never be sure what the ISI is planning and what their future plans are specifically with regard to him. He may have appointed Raheel Sharif as the army chief but the nagging fear will remain that Raheel himself is a Musharraf protégé and can Nawaz ever forget what Musharraf did to him? Then, doesn’t history have the habit to repeat itself and hasn’t history brought this point home repeatedly through past happenings in Pakistan?

Sharif’s lame duck song that Kashmir issue should be settled according to the aspirations of the people and the UN resolutions will have little takers other than the rats in the Hurriyat who smell opportunities to come in media limelight. If Sharif actually wants to look at aspirations of people (which he does not), he would be well advised to address the aspirations of the people of POK, particularly of Gilgit-Baltistan, whose fundamental rights are constantly violated, non-Sunnis institutionally massacred and Chinese scurrying all over their land against their wishes. Additionally, Sharif should educate himself that Hurriyat rats in J&K are actually a pittance to the numbers of J&K population, noises that Omar Abdullah makes are because the dream he nurtures of becoming the Sadar-e-Riyasat of J&K, and similarly Mehbooba despite her links with HuM keeps baulking to extract more moolah from Pakistan – nothing more. Their hollering would no doubt increase if Congress actually projects Ghulam Nabi Azad the next chief ministerial choice, as being reported in media. Amusingly, the manner in which Article 370 is farced in J&K has already been revealed by a Congress Minister’s spouse, much to the discomfort of Omar Abdullah.

Then is the issue of Sharif’s chant that Kashmir must be resolved under provisions of the UN resolutions. It is not possible to believe he is so naïve that Pakistan killed the UN resolution immediately on adoption by not only non-compliance of the UN demand to withdraw all Pakistani security forces from POK as specifically warranted by the UN resolution, but has changed the demography deliberately. Buoyed by hugging Hurriyat separatists in Delhi and joining the Sharif’s chorus on Kashmir, it is humorous to hear Sartaj Aziz squeak. His remarkable discovery is that India is polluting the environment of Pakistan by continuing to occupy Siachen and therefore must withdraw from the glacier. Whether some university will award him a PhD for this thesis only future will tell but he needs to study the global pollution caused by his own country through terrorism. How come someone wallowing in a self created gutter is talking of glacial heights? Is it this lame duck excuse for India to vacate Siachen all he could muster, drawing upon total reserves of his intellect?

For a change, there was an immediate riposte from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who quipped to reporters at the Navy House, “There is no scope of Pakistan winning any such war.” But the moot point is that which is this ‘fourth war’ that badmash Sharif is referring too. The prefix ‘fourth’ would be a misleading ploy ‘war’ but he certainly could not have meant conventional war. Americans told the Pakis decades back they have no hope to win a war against India. Same was the advice by China though they moulded Pakistani strategic thinking to proxy war and irregular militias / jihadis, which Pakistan follows in letter and spirit to-date. So, isn’t this the war that Sharif is referring to, having established a strong jihadi fabric in India, incorporating LeT, JuD, HuM into Pakistan’s India policy and now training scores of Mujahid battalions for pro-active irregular operations in conjunction these terrorist organizations? Is that the reason IM is preparing for bombs in the hundreds, as being reported in the media?

Manmohan Singh and the policy makers need to view Sharif’s challenge in the backdrop of their own admissions that India remains as vulnerable to terrorism as during 26/11, our vulnerabilities at sea and recent warning by the Navy Chief of floating armouries in our waters, the lack of effective counter-terrorism policy and actions because of vote-bank politicking, political appeasement of terrorists and ‘using’ them for political purposes, radical organizations like Popular Front of India not even banned etc. Isn’t that the war that Sharif is referring to? Post his outburst, Nawaz Sharif again changed chameleon colours, denying above statements. But the Dawn isn’t some two penny worth paper that can fabricate statements of a prime minister. It would have been taken to task in such event, besides it would be easy to bump off such a brazen reporter through anyone, 53 reporters already having been killed in Pakistan since 1992. Axiomatically, Sharif talks of war, in line with similar chant by his predecessors, and then blames India for an arms race.

Knowing our political hierarchy, it will be easy to laugh off the incident by saying this was a political compulsion for Nawaz. But the moot point is that can Nawaz or the Pakistani establishment be trusted with relation to J&K? Why are we de-linking terrorism from normalization and talks? Even the most stupid can tell you that terrorism cannot go side by side with ‘normalization’ and that all non-state actors in Pakistan are under state protection of Pakistan, their operations controlled and directed by the ISI. Do we then have the guts to shed one-sided chimeras of peace, get down to ground reality and stop the talk of vacating Siachen and talk Sir Creek?

Talk we should to keep channels open but the discussion should be about whole of J&K, not piecemeal like Siachen and Sir Creek. This will be in line with resolutions in the Indian Parliament with regard to J&K. Surely, we need to keep the powder dry for the conventional front but the dire need is to go fully pro-active to meet the Pakistani challenge of the ‘other war’ discussed above. Yes, trade would be good but we should be clear whom we should be trading with, since the octopus of Fauji Foundation of Pakistan, with numerous tentacles, pushes profits back into terrorism directed at india.

Click to buy

It is not enough to file the NIA report that Pakistan has pumped Rupees 80 crores to the HuM in J&K through cross-border trade over the last eight years, modus operandi being HuM terrorists cross the LC as traders with under invoiced goods sent from Pakistan-POK, Indian traders send equivalent goods as per barter system and HuM collect the financial difference from traders in India. Now, if the political hierarchy in Srinagar and New Delhi does not know this arrangement, you have to be kidding. Terrorism is an industry with big bucks but you have to decide what you owe to the country and the population.