Post-Hijack Blame Game
Turn the Probe Inwards
The Vajpayee government is desperately trying to cover up its abject mishandling of the IC-814 hijacking by blaming Pakistan for the whole episode. This attempt would be less unconvincing if it did not repeat promises to reveal "relevant facts" at "the appropriate time", but instead made full, up-front, public disclosures.
The "appropriate" moment has still not arrived! All we have is selective "background" briefings by unattributable "sources". But the same "sources" had earlier said that Masood Azhar did not want to be released from jail although the hijackers wanted him out! The "evidence" of the "Pakistani hand" is less than clinching, much of it based on confessions (which would hardly pass legal muster).
The fact that some of the hijackers were Pakistani, or connected with Kashmir, does not prove that Islamabad was involved, although that cannot be excluded. For over 50 years, Kashmir's advocacy has transcended borders, and generated strong emotions in both India and Pakistan. Past Kashmir-related hijackings were unconnected to Pakistan.
It does not stand to reason that Islamabad - estranged from the US, under flak for its support to Islamicist causes, and with its economy near collapse - would want to risk a high-profile hijacking and further antagonise Washington. Although some Pakistani dirty-tricks agency could have acted independently, that is a matter to be painstakingly established, not insinuated through speculative argument or guesswork.
Even less uplifting is the spectacle of travel agents rounded up in Mumbai Central, who issued fake passports to the hijackers. The counterfeit ration cards, concocted addresses, and blank school-leaving certificates damn our own officialdom, not Pakistan. We shouldn't point fingers at other unless we clean up our own act in a transparent, convincing manner.
Here, New Delhi has an abysmal record. It is yet to publish the Henderson-Brooks report on the 1962 war or abide by the 30-year secrecy rule. All recent White Papers have been whitewash jobs, not even resembling their rationale - the fullest official statement of all the facts on a subject. The official reluctance to publish even the "sanitised" Subrahmanyam report on Kargil further confirms this.
Hardly more edifying is our past record on "spy scandals" - from the Samba case, through BK Subba Rao, to ISRO. Barring the Larkins Brothers case, the government has failed to secure any convictions. It falsely accused Capt Subba Rao of trying to leak India's "nuclear secrets" (in reality, his own PhD thesis) to the US. It had to apologise unconditionally. We must take its claims with a pinch of salt.
However, even more questionable is the government's larger diplomatic agenda: to isolate Pakistan as a "terrorist state", and enter into an exclusive relationship of proximity with the US, symbolised by a Bill Clinton visit. Nothing would please New Delhi more than a Clinton visit which skips Islamabad - the greatest legitimation of Hindutva.
This BJP agenda will inevitably cause long-term damage to India's relations with other states, especially Pakistan. Hegemony-seeking Washington today represents the ugliest face of global capitalism. Alliance with it will win India hostility, not respect or friendship.
Underlying New Delhi's new gambit is a short-term calculation: trap Washington in its pro-democracy rhetoric to distance itself from Pakistan, and thus counter attempts to internationalise Kashmir. But this internationalisation became a decisive new reality after the 1998 nuclear tests. India is unlikely to get far in keeping Kashmir out of the limelight - so long as trouble brews there.
It would be foolish to read too much into Washington's statements denouncing Masood Azhar. They have less to do with solid support for India, than with open threats to American lives. The Indo-US "honeymoon" is not consummated. It may never be.
However elated Mr Clinton might feel filling the "India void" in his life, he still regards Kashmir as the world's "most dangerous" problem, as he recently said.
Popular alienation in Kashmir, aggravated by the hated Farooq government, is undeniable. As are human rights violations, which have triggered the recent revival of militancy. But our home ministry's response - further tighten security and launch more repression - is proving counter-productive. Even a state as militarily well-organised as Israel could not prevent its own prime minister's assassination. Kashmir needs more than police methods.
So we must pause and ask: Even if we isolate Pakistan, will that really help contain terrorism? Is it realistic to expect the US to be sympathetic to India on the core Kashmir dispute? Are we really sincere about a peaceful, negotiated solution to Kashmir? What have we done to promote it by talking to moderate elements?
Are we just wishing Kashmir problem away even after having painfully learned that it won't vanish whether we use brutal force or our best public relations? The time has come to turn the searchlight inwards, to focus on India's real problems, and our rulers' numerous failures. It won't do to malign, demonise, and ridicule Pakistan. That only plays into the hands of Hindutva and turns us blind to our own responsibilities.
True, Pakistan shouldn't be equated with India. The two are not mirror-images of each other. Democracy and secularism are entrenched here in ways they are not in Pakistan. But they are under attack. There are pressures on India to diminish itself to the pathologies long characteristic of Pakistan.
These must be resisted. So must the attempt to parody Pakistan as a terrorist, aggressive state and glorify India as an eternally peaceful, harmless, nation. India has also messed around in Sindh and Baluchistan, as has Pakistan in Kashmir and Punjab.
India broke up Pakistan and annexed another country - Sikkim. It has militarily intervened in Sri Lanka and Maldives, and bullied other neighbours. India's image is very different from its self-depiction. We shouldn't humiliate or punish Pakistan. Wisdom demands reconciliation, dialogue, cooperation. Beggar-thy-neighbour machismo is the road to disaster.
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