Taking cues from his Prime Minister, Indian President violated all diplomatic norms and the prestige of his high office by castigating Pakistan as a terrorist country. Pranab Mukherjee accused Pakistan of slipping into the dangerous orbit of terrorism and called upon Pakistan to stop the export of state- sponsored terrorism to India. “Terrorist activities must be curbed. And state-sponsored terrorism can never be accepted,” Mukherjee said. His remarks came on October 04, in an interview with Euronews ahead of his visit to Belgium. “We have repeatedly been asking (Pakistan) to dismantle the terrorist outfits which are located in their area,” he said. “These non-state actors are not coming from the heavens. Non-state actors are coming from territory under Pakistan’s control”. He went on to rewrite his own version of history: “The Simla agreement which was signed between the then prime ministers Indra Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto ceded all the occupied territories which Indian Army during the war captured”. Earlier, Prime Minster Manmohan Singh’s address to the UNGA came as a disappointment for all those wishing to re-rail the peace process between Pakistan and India. It was an anticlimax of the peace overtures extended by Pakistan’s Prime Minister since his assumption of office in June. Contents of Manmohan’s hubris clad utterances indeed left a bad taste in the mouth. As of now, Manmohan Singh has no choice but to appear more hawkish than BJP’s Narendra Modi. While addressing the ongoing UNGA session, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: “We stand ready to re-engage with India in a substantive and purposeful dialogue… Our two countries have wasted massive resources in an arms race… resources which could have been used for the well-being of our people. We still have that opportunity.” At the same time, however, Nawaz aptly called for resolving ‘festering disputes’ and urged the UN to play its role in this regard. “The United Nations must continue to remain attentive to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and the full realisation of the right to self- determination of its people. In a hard-hitting rejoinder from the same podium a day after, Dr Singh retorted that India considers the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir “outdated”. He rejected Nawaz Sharif’s call for resolution of the Kashmir issue on the basis of UNSC resolutions, saying India favoured settlement of all issues on the basis of the Simla Agreement. He said, “India is committed sincerely in resolving all issues with Pakistan, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, through bilateral dialogue on the basis of Simla Agreement. There must be a clear understanding of the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is integral part of India and that there can never, ever, be a compromise with the unity and territorial integrity of India.” Singh deflected the pressure of being a defaulter of UNSC resolutions on Kashmir by saying “ the epicentre of terrorism in our region is located in our neighbourhood in Pakistan… for progress to be made, it is imperative that the territory of Pakistan and the areas under its control are not utilised for aiding and abetting terrorism directed against India…It is equally important that the terrorist machinery that draws its sustenance from Pakistan be shut down”. This was the hardest ever statement by India regarding terrorism; it bluntly held Pakistan responsible for conducting terrorism as a state as well as through non- state proxies. Delivered at the UNGA, it severely tarnished the image of Pakistan. Pakistan has rightly responded by withholding the process of granting MFN status to India and not to take any further intiative till the new Indian government is in place. Over 600,000 troops are stationed in IHK since the current wave of struggle for independence began in 1989. These armed forces are present everywhere in Kashmir including schools, colleges, hospitals, recreational venues etc. Due to this, there is constant threat to life, and it radiates a sense of insecurity, uncertainty and fearfulness amongst the masses. Chief Minister of IHK, Omar Abdullah, has said on more than one occasion that presence of Indian armed forces in the territory is directly related to the graph of violence. Last week, Omar underlined the need of sustained dialogue between India, Hurriyet and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue once for all. Last month former Indian Army Chief General V K Singh stated that Indian army has been regularly doling pay- outs to IHK ministers for ‘stabilising’. He claimed that the army has paid all ministers in IHK since independence, and that everyone in the system, including the defence ministry, has been in the know. Army has been giving money to ministers to “ensure that the people are kept together”. “The army transfers money to all the ministers... there are various things to be done. As part of the stabilising factor in held Kashmir, as part of the activities to be organised,” V K Singh told a TV channel. Responding to VK Singh’s confession, the veteran Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani said: “We are not surprised and we know that for the legitimization of forced control of Kashmir, they are regularly being paid for their covert services,” he said. He further said, “VK Singh’s statement supports our claim that election drama in the past was manipulated and stage-managed through the secret fund supplied by agencies.” It is refreshing that a quick rebuttal to President Pranab Mukherjee’s abnormal behaviour came from the Communist Party of India’s leader, Gurudas Dasgupta. He said that if president is to say as strong as it is and if he believes that government is not doing its job properly and is found to be soft on Pakistan, then that is surely not the way to take the corrective measure, “he could have written an official letter to the government, he could have issued a warning to the government, he could have cautioned the government...if the president chooses his way to speak through press, then that may get him appreciation, but that will not correct the government policy”. No meaningful peace initiative can stand for itself if the Kashmir issue is circumvented. A dossier of Indian involvement in creating, fanning and sustaining unrest in Baluchistan was duly handed over to Manmohan Singh by his Pakistani counterpart during the Sham-al-Sheikh NAM summit. Moreover, Pakistan’s foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani has also spoken last week about sharing of evidence with India regarding Indian involvement in Baluchistan Province. When the Indian leadership overcomes its weaker moments of electoral compulsions, it would realise that Lahore Accord signed in 1999, contains a mutually agreed upon road map for the resolution of bilateral differences through peaceful negotiations; and it would also better appreciate that rhetoric is not a substitute for prudence. —The writer is Consultant Policy & Strategi
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 15:10:46 +0000
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