The coordinated terror attacks in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai are still unfolding with at least one or two of the attackers still at large and holding hostages. We are not yet past the latest round of Islamic terror unleashed upon the world and in still in shock at the ferocity of these attacks. But in India and indeed around the world, tough questions are emerging even as the story remains incomplete. Who were these men? Who helped them procure their weapons? Who carried out their intelligence? Who trained them? Who financed them? The answers to these questions increasingly point to Pakistan. These men landed in small crafts by sea. They clearly had the benefit of advanced training under fire and in combat. It is premature to accuse the Pakistani government of direct involvement but there remain elements of Pakistan’s ISI who are opposed to any rapprochement with India. Pakistan needs to establish control over its military and intelligence services or risk isolation and backlash over a disturbing pattern of behaivour by rogue elements of the Pakistani state.
Prime Minister Singh’s Approach to Pakistan Comes Back to Haunt Him
In India, questions are being raised about Prime Singh’s approach to Pakistan. Here’s the Times of India
Of all his formulations, the one that has returned most often to haunt Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the assertion that Pakistan
too, like India, was a victim of terrorism. The macabre irony embedded in the peculiar hypenation plays itself out in a ghastly re-run with every terror strike.The PM’s remark, made before a meeting with Pakistan’s former dictator Pervez Musharraf in September 2006, indicated a singular failure to appreciate the nature of the terror threat and Islamabad’s role in ensuring India remains in a near-permanent state of fearful expectation. In a stroke, the wolf had been turned into a lamb.
Not only do wolves usually don’t really change colours, what was remarkable about Singh’s statement was it came barely two months after the 11/7 Mumbai train bombings where the government saw a Pakistani hand. Yet, a yo-yo response — just a month earlier he said the peace process with Pakistan was under threat — has marked the PM’s approach to terror.
His tough-sounding words after the massive November 26 attack on Mumbai — that he would “take up” with neighbours the use of their territory for launching strikes against India and that “individuals and organisations” behind the outrage would be hunted down — sound like a tinny, worn out record. Even the PM’s aides might find the cowboy act a little hard to swallow.
Politics can be an unforgiving line of work but the PM has chosen to ignore the perils of not learning from mistakes. Soon after serials blasts in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi shook the country, Singh told a governors conference that he was not opposed to tightening anti-terror laws.
The point really is whether the government is flexible to the point of bending before every storm. Soon, after Congress’s political calculations ruled out special anti-terror laws, the PM developed an amnesia that afflicts politicians. Until the fidayeen struck Mumbai. “Existing laws will be tightened to ensure there are no loopholes for terrorists to escape,” the PM intoned on Thursday. Disbelief wrestled with incredulity.
No one really believes any laws will be added or changed. The promise of a federal investigative agency has been part of a file in PMO for many months now.
After having bought into the political argument that anti-terror laws “target” minorities, Congress has found it difficult to retrace its steps. Yet, with each succeeding terrorist atrocity, the pressure to be seen to be doing something has increased. But the PM has sought to make concessions that Congress is not prepared to underwrite.
Apart from the India-US nuclear deal, the PM has tended to see peace with Pakistan as part of his legacy. But even as he built useful CBMs with Musharraf, the bid to de-militarise Siachen shocked the armed forces which felt the plan was ill considered. Today, the “mountain of peace” line seems more tacky than it ever did.