INDIA AT WAR III- CALL THE BLUFF

IF OUR HOUSE BE ON FIRE, WITHOUT ENQUIRING WHETHER IT WAS FIRED FROM WITHIN OR WITHOUT, WE MUST TRY TO EXTINGUISH IT.-----THOMAS JEFFERSON

It is more than a month since the terrorists declared war on India. Not that the acts pre 26/11 were not acts of war, but compared to the audacious frontal assault on 26/11, those events can be called mere sorties to judge our defences and reactions. The recce's on India have been carried out for more than 20 years now, through targeted assassinations, explosions, introduction of fake currency into the system, use of the stock markets to launder money and stuff. Our adversaries are now convinced of our muddled approach to an epidemic which is worse than the plague for it affects the mind and the strength to resist.

The events post 26/11 would have reinforced this belief of the terrorists. The defence minister rules out 'War as an option', the foreign minister says that 'All options are on the table', the Prime Minister says something which only he can decipher. The foreign minister is now apparently convincing the 'friends' of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China and America to pressurise Pakistan to take action against the perpetrators of this ghastly attack. The Pakistanis are much more focused on their line of defence, which is basically offence. Someday it is 'provide us the evidence', someday 'We will strike back within minutes', to ' we will act in our interest, not on somebody's bidding'.

Great show guys! You really have to hand out to these politicians. Let Thomas Jefferson say what he wants to , we will first enquire as to whether the fire started from our neighbour's house or our own. Then we will judge whether the origin of this fire has its genesis in our own house immaterial of the fact that this raging fire is repeatedly being fanned by our neighbour. This fire has been slowly turning our house into ashes for twenty years but we are so confused about its perpetrators The best part is that rather than confronting this scourge of fire ourselves, we rush to the Mafiosi of the locality, requesting them to ask our neighbour to desist from sending this fire into our house. The whole farce could be called a comedy circus provided the implications weren't as serious.

The show of resolve immediately in the aftermath of 26/11 was impressive. The anger in the common people against the inability of the politicians to provide leadership and security manifested itself in a huge spontaneous gathering in Mumbai, perhaps the largest non political gathering in the country post independence. The politicians closed ranks and countered with a special session of the Parliament to let off a lot of hot air. The 'P.M in waiting' wanted 'every loss of Indian life to be avenged', the 'P.M in hoping' talked of the Kauravas and the Pandavas uniting to fight a common enemy'.

For once, the political class exhibited unity for a day. But as is their wont, they lapsed into the mode of political kite flying soon thereafter. A.R. Antulay is not the loose canon he was made out to be after his 'investigation into Hemant Karkare's death' remark. Old habits die hard, as they say. For all practical purposes, it was a calculated attempt by the ruling dispensation to judge the mood of the people and to confirm its 'SECULAR' credentials. A.R.Antulay is too wily and experienced a politician to shoot off his mouth without a green signal from the very top. The 'conspiracy theory' statement has met with more than an enthusiastic response from the Urdu press. The response gauged, Antulay has retreated back into his shell, apparently convinced of the veracity of the encounter after a rather dull and drab statement from the Home Minister which conveyed nothing which was not in the public domain. That Antulay's irresponsible statement was a well calculated strategy can be judged from the fact that he would have been sacked from the Union cabinet for indirectly casting aspersions on the statement of the P.M who had declared Pakistan to be responsible for this carnage in his televised address to the nation post 26/11, if Antulay had been shooting off his mouth at his own sweet will. Furthermore if he had any evidences to prove his theory the same should have been brought to the public's notice rather than simple circulation of his theories. Please note that Antulay continues to be an integral part of the Union cabinet without so much as a rap on the knuckles.

The fact that this irresponsibility has been utilised by Pakistan to buttress their case before the International community and that it was an affront to the people who laid down their lives in those 60 hours of carnage is nobody's case really! What is the life of people like Karkare, Kamte, Unnikrishnan before the upcoming parliamentary elections and the lure of the the so called minority vote bank. Perhaps the 'P.M in waiting' would like to respond. We have been brought to this abyss by these very acts revolving around this perversion of 'secularism' and its direct linkages with the vote bank.

Pakistan which was bullied into supporting America's war on terror post 9/11 by the famous ' we will bomb you into stone ages' advice from Richard Armitage , is back to its old ways after the initial show of support for India's pain. Apparently Azmal Amir Kasab never existed in the Pakistani records. That those records cover only 30% of the Pakistani population is nobody's case really. The war hysteria being generated across the Wagah border is symptomatic of the mess Pakistan is in. The army which was extremely unpopular after the Lal Masjid face off and was facing desertions because of its operations in the FATA and Waziristan provinces is now shifting the attention of the populace towards the eternal enemy, India. The Pakistani army loves a good war as much as the Indian bureaucracy loves a good drought. Both are extremely beneficial for the economics of the house, you see! Studies have revealed that the Pakistani army is the biggest corporate player in the Pakistani economy. Apparently most of the business in Pakistan is owned by the Army personnel, both serving and retired.

Pakistan is looking for a way to wriggle out of the mess on its North Western frontier province. They have obtained billions of dollars of aid from the U.S on the plea of being a key ally in the American war against terror. But this has made them extremely unpopular in the country. How do you fight your own baby, the Taliban? Pakistan is now using the spectre of a war on its eastern border against India to pull out troops from the border with Afghanistan. This according to the Pakistani army has the double benefit of the populace forgetting the chaos on the North western front. Nothing like the hard core jingoism, you see! Get those adrenaline juices flowing guys, We are at War with India! But another benefit which is being calibrated into account is the paranoia which has set in amongst the American policy makers. They feel that they are at a crucial stage in the war in Afghanistan and any troop pull out by Pakistan may land the Americans in a spot of bother vis a vis Afghanistan. The Americans will do anything to keep the Pakistanis on their side, for they are fighting their own war and not India's.

By a strange paradox, Pakistan will have both the Talibanis and the U.S on its side if their chicanery succeeds. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, doesn't it?

The most worrying signs are emanating from Washington and Moscow. Barack Obama has already shown his willingness to appoint a special designate, possibly Bill Clinton to mediate between the permanently squabbling India and Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir, so as to paraphrase the American thinking. Pakistan with its present rhetoric of an impending war is sure to confirm the American doubts of Kashmir being a flashpoint which has all the potential of conflagrating a war. This has dangerous portends for India for when combined with the sell out over the nuclear deal, it has the potential to make Indian foreign policy completely subservient to the American vision for the world. India cannot let this idea of an official designate for Kashmir progress any further. But the way we permitted FBI officials to interrogate Azmal Kasab in the hope of obtaining American support for the apprehension of the perpetrators of 26/11 knowing fully well that the perpetrators of this attack are not living in some huts and wild territory, 'stateless' as Zardari calls them, but in the Army H.Q in Rawalpindi, the chances of us fighting our own war and standing up for ourselves appears bleak indeed.

The failure of the Indian foreign policy in putting all it eggs in one basket has resulted in its traditional ally Russia drifting away. The call from Moscow for India and Pakistan to desist from building up tension on its borders is ominous from an Indian standpoint. Note the missing support for Indian restraint and valid attempts for self defence. This is Putin's hint to the mandarins in New Delhi, 'getting too cosy with the Yankees, eh' !!

Indian policymakers have too realize that the war on terror has to be fought by our own selves . 'There are no permanent friends or foes in politics, only permanent interests', they say.

We have to get rid of this approach of looking in askance towards others in solving our problems. Recently released archives from U.S show that Nehru inspite of his feel good policy of non alignment ,desperately sought support from U.S during the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962 and received some grudging support from it. This indicates the wooly eyed approach towards foreign policy.

Matters of foreign policy require hard core professional approach towards national interest and not the please all approach we are prone to take. Sample the condemnation of the Israeli assault on the Hamas in the Gaza territory. The Hamas is as ruthless a terrorist organisation as the Lashkar or the Jaish. I fail to understand how we can call for a ban on the Jamat ud dawah on the one hand and praise Hamas for its resistance. Double standards while confronting terror will lead us nowhere. On the other hand the Israeli support for India in its fight against terror has been unequivocal, while our affinity with the Palestinians for the sake of Arab support for us in our conflict with Pakistan defies logic. On innumerable occasions the Organisation of Islamic countries (OIC) which is dominated by Saudi Arabia has passed uncomfortable resolutions on the issue of Kashmir.We have to shrug this pseudo moralistic approach and move forward. To borrow from George Bush, we have to make it very clear to the world that in this war on terror 'they are either with us or against us'. But for that we need to eradicate our own double standards. A terrorist is a terrorist, period! We cannot have a Lashkar bad boy and a Hamas fighter for freedom and justice.

The country has to realize that this war has to fought on our own. If Pakistan can threaten U.S with its strategy of withdrawing troops from the border with Afghanistan in order to defend itself against an imaginary Indian attack, why can we not clearly tell the Americans to compel the Pakistanis to hand over people like Dawood, Hafiz Saeed to us, dismantle the 'stateless' terror network or else we will not rule out the option of war , for we cannot be expected to bleed indefinitely in order to assist in America's war in Afghanistan. It is time we called Pakistan's bluff. As of now Pakistan is very successfully setting the agenda and we simply follow it.

Apart from the foreign policy, the internal policy has to be set in order. The govt. has promised of the National Investigation Agency, the Maritime Security adviser and stuff. Sounds good doesn't it, apart from the fact that the issue of Maritime security adviser was one of the recommendations of the review committee under the chairmanship of noted defence analyst K.Subhramanyam which was set up to enquire into the lapses which led to the Kargil war, and make recommendations. That was in 1999. Today the govt. when 2009 is about to begin gets back into the rewind mode and dusts the file. Will somebody ask them that if the idea was not good enough for 10 years, what led to this sudden enthusiasm for it? Rest assured some worthy from the navy will be appointed to the post if at all the idea moves forward and there will be a mad scramble for getting appointed for the post and the most pliant of persons will get the chequered flag. The National Investigation agency might already be not worth the paper it is printed on.

The confidence building measures between India and Pakistan were built on the premise of Pakistan not permitting its territory to be utilized for anti India activity. Post Mumbai and the purported mountains of evidence against Pakistan, why have the CBM's not been called off ? How long will we allow ourselves to be bled to death? As rightly observed by the sports minister, ' our team cannot play cricket with them when they send another team to kill and maim our people'.

An informed citizenry is the biggest requirement for the flourishing of democracy. The strength lies within. The pressure needs to be kept on the politicians to take action or else be prepared to face the next assault from the 'stateless actors' from across the border. The national interest has to supersede any other interest, our war has to be fought be us and us alone, at all places, under all conditions. Surrender is not an option.

Please sample the ideology being prescribed to by our 'stateless actors'-

"You do not make treaties with evildoers or try to adjust your conduct to make them like you. You do not try to see the world from the evildoer's point of view. You do not try to appease them, or persuade them, or reason with them. You try on the contrary, to outwit them, to vanquish them, to kill them. You behave with them in the same manner that you would deal with a fatal epidemic--you try to wipe it out."- Al Qaida's fantasy ideology.

Is there a message in this ideology for all of us?