Events & Issues

New Delhi, 8 July 2009

Hillary Visit 

INDIA SHOULD BE FIRM

By PK Nigam

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other U.S. officials are soon going to descend on New Delhi. A big number of US and UK leaders such as Condoleza Rice and the British Foreign Secretary, David Milibrand visited Delhi shortly after the Mumbai blasts. Their sole aim was to prevent any strong action against Pakistan in view of the anger in India and the public condemnation worldwide. Clearly, the intention of both the Americans and the British was to use India and Pakistan to fight the Taliban, which is fighting against the US and the NATO. 

The two did succeed in pacifying the UPA Government. Young ‘Milibrain’ (which describes Milibrand better) posing as a great champion of truth claimed: “I have no evidence of Pakistan state directing terrorist activities against India. I would never make that claim without that evidence.” Either Milibrain’s claim was due to ignorance (which shows British Intelligence in a very poor light) or for ulterior motives. The latter is more likely. Europeans think that the Albino is a big intriguer and a liar. The real reason is “tilt” towards Pakistan, which was England’s creation. The truth is conclusively proved in following paragraph:

Ahmad Rashid, the famous Pakistani journalist and an authority on Taliban has written in his widely-acclaimed book, “Descent into Chaos/ The U.S. and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia”:  “The ISI (and Pakistan army) has for more than 20 years, for its own purposes, deliberately and consistently funded and incubated a variety of Islamist groups, including in particular Jaish-e-Mohammad and Laskhar-e-Taiba. Since the days of the anti-Soviet Mujaheddin, the Pakistan army saw the Jihadis as an ingenious and cost-effective means of both dominating Afghanistan – something they finally achieved with the retreat of Soviets in 1987 – and bogging down the Indian army in Kashmir – something they succeeded in achieving from 1990 onwards.” ... “Hamid Gul, (the then director of ISI), who was largely responsible for developing this strategy, once explained to me, “if the ISI ‘encourages the Kashmiris, it is understandable”

It is more than seven months since the Pakistani terrorists, trained and armed by the ISI and its government, struck in Mumbai. Though the US and the UK preached New Delhi to fight terror in cooperation with Islamabad, as both were fighting a common enemy, Pakistan has done nothing concrete to punish the terrorists involved in Mumbai or in closing down the numerous terrorist training camps and hate-preaching Madarasas even now. According to some estimates, there are 20,000 Madarasas in Pakistan. Saed, who founded the Laskhar-e-Taiba and master-minded the Mumbai attack, was let off by the court in Pakistan. 

Importantly, the US could have put effective pressure on Islamabad to close the terrorist training camps and Madarasas, as it keeps a bankrupt Pakistan afloat. On the other hand, the US is flooding Pakistan with money in the name of fighting terror. This only emboldens Islamabad to attack India. Despite our protests, since the birth of Pakistan, the US has been giving arms and economic aid to Islamabad under various pretexts such as fighting communism and now terror.  However, all this is being used against India.

In the past, Pakistan loudly said and is saying even today that its main enemy is India. We are now being told by the US that we have nothing to worry about other than liberal economic aid to Pakistan (when the US, itself is bankrupt today). Sadly, this is a repeat of the old song. Moreover, Pakistan army is putting up a show of fighting the Taliban and making false claims of victory. Hence, we should not expect any help from the US, our so-called partner in the fight against terror. Both Pakistan and the US are playing a double game. The main question for us today is: what do we do to protect our national interest and our people?

We should not take a defensive posture in our incoming talks with Hillary Clinton and other US officials and tell them firmly our policy. We will neither reduce any troops from our western border nor will we give up our nuclear arsenal. The two are absolutely necessary for our national defense, in view of Pakistan’s hostile and offensive posture. Sending terrorists to India is an offensive posture. Islamabad has very clearly said that India is its main enemy and its nuclear arsenal is against it only. The US was saying so also. Thus, our nuclear arsenal ensures that Pakistan can never use any nuclear bombs against us.

As far as Kashmir is concerned, it is a bilateral matter, between India and Pakistan, to be resolved peacefully and bilaterally according to the Simla agreement.  We do not want the U.S. as a mediator, facilitator or under any other fancy name. Nehru had correctly said that Kashmir is not the cause but a symptom of Pakistan’s hostile attitude. More than the US or any other country, we want to live in peace with Pakistan for the benefit of both of us.

Gandhiji had agreed to the partition of India in 1947 on the condition that it will be between two brothers. Any pretension of the Pakistan government, that it is the protector of Muslims interests is hollow and devoid of truth. An objective study of conditions of Muslims in pre-partition India shows that they are much better off in Indian than Muslims in Pakistan with its murderous military dictators. This goes to prove that the claim of Pakistan and its former president Parvez Musharraf that it has a natural interest in Kashmir is a fabricated excuse for creating trouble in the Valley.

Hence, we have to protect our national interest and our people on our strength, based on our own judgment. The only concession we can give to the US is that we will take a defensive posture and not attack Pakistan, unless attacked overtly or covertly. This should enable Pakistan to fight the Taliban without any danger from us. ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)