Comment

They were here in 2002. They are here in 2008. On both occasions, it has been in the wake of terror attack. In 2002, it was in the wake of the December 2001 terror attack on Indian parliament. Now, it is after the Mumbai attack.

In the last two weeks, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, a team of US senators led by Republican John McCain, US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte, British prime minister Gordon Brown, German interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble came calling, to New Delhi and in Islamabad. Russian president Dimitry Medvedev’s visit happened to coincide with the post-Mumbai terror attack. He did not come to be a peace-maker, the honest broker, the job that others had taken over.

Go back to early 2002. Then we had former US secretary of state Colin Powell, former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, British prime minister Tony Blair, French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, in the wake of the terrorist attack on Parliament. These leaders came to pacify India and counsel Pakistan. The Western media then had talked of the dangerous possibility of the south Asian arch-rivals triggering a nuclear war.

There are, of course, the differences. In 2002, the pressure was greater on India not to precipitate a crisis. Pakistan’s then president and chief of army staff Pervez Musharraf had been given friendly advice. Musharraf was then the poster boy of a modern, moderate Muslim state which was the chief ally of Western powers in the global war against terrorism. This time round, Rice, Negroponte and Brown, were quite tough on Islamabad. They have become more attentive to what India is saying. The reason is simple. In Mumbai, the terrorists killed American and British nationals along with that of Israelis.

That is why, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Arun Shourie was quite off the mark when he told the government in his characteristic acerbic language not to run to mummy (Rice), and that India has to fight its own battle against terrorism. Unfortunately for Shourie, the BJP-led NDA governmentofAB Vajpayee in 2002 did believe that the Americans would arm-twist Pakistan on our behalf and were very disappointed when it did not happen.

The Congress leaders have a slight edge over their BJP counterparts in dealing with the Western leaders because they are not flattered to the same degree as the BJP leaders by Western attention. But this is a matter of attitude and style on the part of the two major parties in the country. The key issue is of the role of Western diplomacy in this part of the world.It is natural for Pakistan to feel reassured by the presence of Western players. The Indians ordinarily should be irritated, but they do not seem to be so. They are happy that at last the western leaders realise that Pakistan is indeed the cause behind Islamic terrorism.

The dangerous part of this story is to feel flattered that leading countries like the US, Britain and others are paying so much attention to us in a time of crisis. The selfish motives of the US and Britain involved are understandable. The Americans, Britain and the NATO are fighting a losing war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. They are not sure anymore that Pakistan is a trustworthy ally. They are turning to India.

Unfortunately, Manmohan Singh, like his predecessor Vajpayee, seems to believe that this is a sign of India emerging as a key player in the region. And this is where the danger lies. India is an important player indeed, but it does not yet have the wherewithal to be involved in regional trouble spots. India cannot play the sheriff in the region on behalf of the Americans and the west. An Iraq-like situation in Afghanistan-Pakistan is a certain danger for India. American solutions are at best half-baked ones. There is need to take a deep breath and think coolly about the situation.
Email: r_parsa@dnaindia.net