Politics Of Terror: Pakistan Vs India!

By CHINMAY CHAKRAVARTY - March 16, 2013

The Pakistan government has been steadfastly honest about its skewed international diplomacy in relation to its neighbor India—keeps offering the bait of peace and talks, and reciprocates with military attacks and terror strikes the moment the offers take shape. When a round of bilateral talks starts or ends positively it gets invariably neutralized by some kind of ridiculous and controversial statements or actions on the Pakistan front. When a Pakistan President or Prime Minister or Minister visits India in a most amiable atmosphere Pakistan sponsored terrorists deliver a strike or the Pakistan army does something nasty on the Line of Control (LoC). Cricket has always been an integral part of Pak diplomacy too. Banking on the cricket crazy millions in both countries this politics works faster and more effectively. After a long gap since 2008 the Pak cricket team came to India in December-Jan, 2012-13 for a short ODI Series and fans were delighted. But on January 6, the day of the last match, Pakistan army masterminded a brutal attack on the Indian side of the LoC.

On March 9, 2013 Prime Minister of Pakistan paid a personal visit to a Muslim shrine in Jaipur and had lunch with the Indian Foreign Minister. Just four days later Pakistan militants launched a major terror attack on a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) camp in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir—a state ravaged by politics of terror over the decades. The tortured state where democracy is never allowed to bloom continued to reel under violence with regular murders of political leaders and in recent times murders of village headmen who dared to talk about democratic norms. But for three years the state was spared of major terror attacks. After the hanging of Afzal Guru another round of terror politics began taking advantage of the tension created due only to the rule of the militants there. Pakistan link to the attack was proved again with the arrest of two more terrorists.Ironically, the terrorists came dressed as cricketers with their sports kits.

The very next day, that is 14^th March, Pakistan did the unthinkable taking full advantage of the terror politics. The Pakistan Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the hanging of Guru and asking for the body of the hanged terrorist for proper burial there. The political storm that ensued in India was only to be expected as opposition political parties demanded to know when the Government of India would assert itself and how long it was going to be tolerant and silent. The immediate casualty was the cancellation of the forthcoming bilateral Hockey Test Series between the two neighbors as the Government of India had to take some action. Yes, sports relations always suffer first due to politics.

The vested interests in Pakistan never want normal relations established between the two neighbors and whenever some positive signs emerge they promptly crush it off. These vested interests are represented by the militants of various hues and colors including the Taliban. Problem is they have taken a vicious hold on Pakistan with its ‘democratic’ government too weak to get out of it and the army becoming indistinguishable from the militants. Some very solid hopes surfaced in 2011 when Pakistan decided to give Most Favored Nation (MFN) status to India, but as usual, the implementation part is yet to happen. A false sense of hope prevails over the people who want peace and good neighborly relations.