Pakistan slaps India with evidence of RAW’s involvement in Terrorism in Pak.

ISI Chief Shuja Pasha has summoned his Indian Counterpart, K C Verma for a meeting through the Indian defence attache in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

The Indian government has not responded to ISI’s request yet, and is reportedly assessing the implications of a possible meeting carefully.
After the July 16 Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement between India and Pakistan, India fears that Pakistan would use this meeting as a forum to expose Indian connections with terrorists in Balochistan and Baitullah Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Pakistan has stockpiles of evidence against Indian consulates in Afghanistan that are being used to fund terrorism in Pakistan through Baitullah Mehsud’s TTP as well as Brahamdagh Bugti and his ‘BLA’ (Baloch Liberation Army).

Pakistan’s DAWN reports that a dossier containing proof of India’s involvement in “subversive activities” in Pakistan was handed over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh during their meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh last week.The evidence has also been shared with the US and Afghanistan, with Kabul being asked to prevent the use of its territory for disruptive activities against Pakistan.

“Although the information given to India is being kept highly secret, broad outlines of the dossier available with Dawn reveal details of Indian contacts with those involved in attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the Manawan police station,” the newspaper said.“Operatives of RAW who remained in touch with the perpetrators of the attacks have been identified and proof of their interaction have been attached,” it added.

A description of Indian arms and explosives used in the attack on the Sri Lankan team has been made part of the dossier, besides which the names and particulars of the perpetrators, who illegally entered Pakistan from India and joined their accomplices who had reached Lahore from Waziristan, have been mentioned, the report said.

The dossier is also said to list the safe houses being run by RAW in Afghanistan where terrorists are trained and launched for missions in Pakistan.“The dossier also broadly covers the Indian connection in terror financing in Pakistan.A substantial part of the shared material deals with the Balochistan insurgency and Indian linkages with the insurgents, particularly Bramdagh Bugti, Burhan and Sher Khan,” Dawn said.
Photographs of their meetings with Indian operatives are part of the evidence, which also describes Bugti’s visit to India and the meetings he had with Indian secret service personnel, it added.

The dossier also mentions an India-funded training camp in Kandahar where Baloch insurgents, particularly those from Bugti clan, were being trained and provided arms and ammunition for sabotage activities in the Pakistani province.Dawn quoted its sources as saying that Manmohan Singh had agreed to “look into Pakistani claims” and to take “corrective action” if proven. He is said to have assured Mr Gilani that India is against interference in other countries and Pakistan’s stability was important for them.

“Yes, these issues were discussed,” Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit said when asked about the meeting.

Indian Backed Terrorism in Pakistan

Brahamdagh is based in Kabul and is a familiar face within the defence and intelligence circles in Delhi.BLA was the name that the former KGB and the Indian intelligence gave to Pakistani communist recruits who were paid to destabilize Pakistan during the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, when the Soviet Union controlled Afghanistan. The BLA died with the end of the Cold War and the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, but has been revived by the Indians after the US occupied Afghanistan.

Here is what Christine Fair of RAND corporation had to say about what the Indian consulates are up to in Afghanistan and Iran:"I think it would be a mistake to completely disregard Pakistan’s regional perceptions due to doubts about Indian competence in executing covert operations. That misses the point entirely. And I think it is unfair to dismiss the notion that Pakistan’s apprehensions about Afghanistan stem in part from its security competition with India. Having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity! Moreover, India has run operations from its mission in Mazar (through which it supported the Northern Alliance) and is likely doing so from the other consulates it has reopened in Jalalabad and Qandahar along the border. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Baluchistan. Kabul has encouraged India to engage in provocative activities such as using the Border Roads Organization to build sensitive parts of the Ring Road and use the Indo-Tibetan police force for security.

It is also building schools on a sensitive part of the border in Kunar–across from Bajaur. Kabul’s motivations for encouraging these activities are as obvious as India’s interest in engaging in them. Even if by some act of miraculous diplomacy the territorial issues were to be resolved, Pakistan would remain an insecure state. Given the realities of the subcontinent (e.g., India’s rise and its more effective foreign relations with all of Pakistan’s near and far neighbors), these fears are bound to grow, not lessen. This suggests that without some means of compelling Pakistan to abandon its reliance upon militancy, it will become ever more interested in using it — and the militants will likely continue to proliferate beyond Pakistan’s control.”

The Foreign Policy magazine also confirmed the Indians were neck deep in supporting the TTP in Pakistan: (February 16th issue | Laura Rozen)

While the U.S. media has frequently reported on Pakistani ties to jihadi elements launching attacks in Afghanistan, it has less often mentioned that India supports insurgent forces attacking Pakistan. “The Indians are up to their necks in supporting the Taliban against the Pakistani government in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” a former intelligence official who served in both countries said. “The same anti-Pakistani forces in Afghanistan also shooting at American soldiers are getting support from India. India should close its diplomatic establishments in Afghanistan and get the Christ out of there.”

Afghan officials have also confirmed that India is using Afghanistan to stir trouble in Pakistan

“India is using Afghan soil to destabilize Pakistan and Afghan security agencies are unable to stop Indian intervention due to absence of centralized government mechanism”, said Afghan Government’s Advisor, Ehsanullah Aryanzai on sidelines of Pak-Afgan Parliamentary Jirga at a local hotel on April 2nd, 2009.

Pressure on the US

The Americans – under heavy pressure in Afghanistan – have started to realise they cannot save face in Afghanistan unless Pakistan’s legitimate concerns with regards to Indian sponsored terrorism are addressed immediately.

A Senior US diplomat William Burns gave Indian officials a terse directive last month, asking them to ’shut down Indian Consulates in Afghanistan, reduce presence in Kabul and stop sending terrorists across the Durand Line.’. The message was supplemented with a letter from the American President Barack Obama to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with a similar message.

Whether K C Verma takes up Shuja Pasha’s offer of a one-on-one or not, Pakistan should increase the pressure on the US by declaring neutrality with regards to Afghanistan, and block the supply of American and NATO weapons through its soil. With no other supply line available, this act will go a long way in turning the tables and forcing the US to negotiate on Pakistan’s terms – which must include the complete elimination of Indian assets in Afghanistan.

Sources
Daily.pk
Dawn

The RAW dossier

For quite some time now, Pakistani officials have been both hinting and asserting that there is an Indian hand behind the insurgency in Balochistan. India, it is alleged, has been using its growing influence in Kabul to channel weapons and funds to separatists in Balochistan, besides funding a training camp in Kandahar for the likes of the Baloch Republican Army. India’s Research and Analysis Wing also stands accused of masterminding other terrorist acts in Pakistan, including deadly assaults on the Sri Lankan cricket team and a police academy in Lahore.

New Delhi for its part has insisted, and not without reason, that it be provided with concrete evidence of Indian involvement. This has now been done, with the reported handing over of a dossier detailing instances of Indian interference in Pakistan. The evidence apparently includes pictures of some senior Baloch separatist leaders conferring with Indian operatives as well as details of safe houses run by RAW in Afghanistan. Proof of India’s involvement in terror financing in Pakistan has also been provided, it is said, as have the names of Indian agents who crossed the border to link up with militants on this side of Wagah.

It is said the document changed hands at the recent meeting between the Pakistani and Indian PMs at Sharm el Sheikh, where the two countries pledged full cooperation in the battle against terrorism. The Indian response is now awaited. No one expects India — or Pakistan for that matter — to accept charges of state-sponsored interference in a neighbouring country. It will suffice if the evidence is examined with honesty of purpose with due follow-up, even if it takes place behind closed doors.

Stopping the meddling is more important than the manner in which it is brought to an end. It is the final result that counts. If they are rogue elements within RAW who are acting independently, they must be taken to task forthwith. Pakistan also needs to put its own intelligence agencies under the microscope and determine whether a similar cull is needed here.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged India the other day to help Pakistan in the fight against terrorism, for the common good of both countries. This is advice worth heeding because the two neighbours are now at a crossroads and need to choose a course that will relegate past follies to the realm of history. It is not the intelligence agencies that have paid the price for our mutual antagonism. It is the poor people of the subcontinent who have suffered at the hands of a money-guzzling war machine.

Source
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/...-dossier-hs-02

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Pak allegations baseless: India

NEW DELHI: A day after Pakistani media carried reports of a dossier presented to the Indian PM carrying details of India's alleged role in
fomenting trouble in Balochistan and other areas, sources in the PMO have rubbished the reports saying Pakistani allegations are ‘baseless’.

On Wednesday, a Pakistani news report in a leading newspaper quoted official sources suggesting that Manmohan Singh agreed to the mention of Balochistan in the joint statement after his Pakistani counterpart confronted him in Sharm-el-Sheikh with a dossier detailing India's covert subversion in the restive province of Balochistan.

The report in Dawn claimed the dossier also had details about India fomenting trouble in other areas of Pakistan. The report said India was responsible for the attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the Manawan police academy, and that it maintains a ‘terror training camp’ in Kandahar from where trained Baloch insurgents are sent into Pakistan. The report further said that the dossier had also been handed over to the US and Afghanistan.

Indian government sources have on Thursday called these allegations baseless. The government sources have denied that any such dossier was shown to the Prime Minister at Sharm-el-Sheikh. Sources said ever since the formation of the Joint Terror Mechanism at the Havana summit, Pakistan has continually made allegations citing names and places, and India has chased these clues and found them to be baseless.

Regarding the accusation that Indian consulates in Afghanistan were being used chiefly against Pakistan, the government sources clarified that the consulates were for Afghani citizens and had nothing to do with Pakistan.

Majority of the charges made in Dawn newspaper are not new. After the attack on Sri Lankan players, a Punjab province minister had alleged an Indian hand. Islamabad has been lobbying hard with the US to get Indian consulates shut down in Afghanistan.

However, this is the first time that the Indian side has agreed to the mention of Balochistan in a joint statement.

Source
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/N...ow/4810501.cms

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

ISI chief to India: talk to us, we make policy too

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: Days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani met in Egypt, the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence floated a suggestion that India deal not just with Pakistan’s civilian government but also directly with its Army and intelligence agency.

Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha made the out-of-the-box overture during a meeting earlier this month with the three Indian defence advisers representing the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force attached to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, The Hindu has learnt.

The sit-in at Lt. Gen. Pasha’s office in Rawalpindi on July 3 took place entirely at his initiative, though it was ostensibly convened in response to a request made by the Indian High Commission “years before.” It is normal for defence advisors attached to various diplomatic missions in Islamabad to seek and be granted calls on the ISI director-general — a wing of the ISI is the co-ordinating agency for them — but Indians have rarely had an audience.

During their discussion, Lt. Gen. Pasha and the defence advisors did not refer to the Mumbai attacks or the investigations into it, either on the Indian or Pakistani side. Nevertheless, senior officials in Delhi saw the interaction as an attempt by the ISI to “reach out” to India in the run-up to the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting of the two Prime Ministers.

The Hindu has learnt that during the course of the extremely cordial meeting, Lt. Gen. Pasha came clean in stating that the ISI and the Pakistan Army were involved in framing Pakistan’s India policy, along with the Foreign Office. He made the oblique suggestion that India deal directly with these three institutions if it had a similar three-way mechanism.

In their effort to understand the genesis of this idea, Indian officials sought to establish whether the ISI chief — who has a reputation for speaking his mind freely — had merely made an off-the-cuff remark or was floating a trial balloon after consultations with all other “stakeholders” in the Pakistani establishment.

Ministry of External Affairs officials asked Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik about the ISI chief’s suggestion, but the envoy was unaware that the meeting had even taken place. This led the MEA to conclude that the Pakistani foreign office may not be in the loop.
Asked about the July 3 meeting last week, Mr. Malik confirmed to The Hindu that it took place but said he was unaware of what was discussed. Major-General Athar Abbas, the Pakistani military spokesman, said he had no knowledge of the meeting. Officials at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad also refused comment.

Highly placed South Block officials told The Hindu that India is not averse to talking to the Pakistani military or the ISI even as it engages with the civilian government but there were two problems with the suggestion. First, any proposal to open new lines of communication must come from the Pakistani government. And second, the power structures in India and Pakistan cannot really compare with each other.

Although Prime Minister Singh and Prime Minister Gilani agreed the ISI chief could come to India in the immediate aftermath of last November’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Islamabad quickly backtracked. Since then, no formal proposal for interaction between the ISI and an Indian intelligence agency has been made. Indeed, Mr. Gilani told The Hindu at Sharm el-Sheikh that the question of an intelligence chiefs’ dialogue did not come up in his meeting with Dr. Singh, a fact confirmed by Indian officials.

But apart from form, it is the question of structure that poses an obstacle. “The Research & Analysis Wing operates within the law and is subordinate to the government,” a senior intelligence official told The Hindu. “There, the government is subordinate to the ISI, which is a law unto itself.”
South Block officials said the Indian High Commissioner and his officers could and should be in touch with the Pakistani army and intelligence chiefs. “But I wonder what would be the point of the Indian Army Chief talking to his Pakistani counterpart … their job definitions are so different.”

Source
http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/23/stor...2350080100.htm

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Demonisation of the Baloch Freedom Struggle: An Open Letter to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi

By B. Raman

Dear Mrs. Sonia Gandhi,

No other section of the people of Pakistan had stood by India and the Pakistani Hindus as lovingly, as loyally and as courageously as the Balochs have done. Of all the people of Pakistan, the Balochs were the closest to the hearts of Gandhiji, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and other leaders of the Congress (I) of the pre-2004 vintage.

2. When India and Pakistan became independent in 1947, in the riots that preceded and followed the Partition, practically all the Hindus, Sikhs and other non-Muslims were driven out of Pakistani Punjab and many of them from Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) despite the protection of the non-Muslims in the NWFP by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi, and his brave followers. One area of Pakistan from which the non-Muslims were not driven out was Balochistan.

3. When the Babri Masjid was demolished by a Hindu mob in December,1992, mobs in Pakistani Punjab encouraged by the local officials retaliated by demolishing Hindu places of worship. There were acts of retaliation in Sindh and the NWFP too-----but not on the same scale as in Pakistani Punjab. Balochistan was one province which did not see such horrendous acts of retaliation as one saw in Punjab.

4. Baloch leaders such as Khair Bux Marri, Ataullah Khan Mengal, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and many others took the Hindus and their places of worship under their protection and saw to it that no harm came to them from the Punjabi settlers in Balochistan.

5. The Hindu population of Balochistan has considerably come down in recent years due to their forcible ejection from there by the Army after it launched the project for the construction of the Gwadar port with Chinese assistance. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) looked upon them as potential R&AW agents and forced them to shift.

6. But the Hindus, who have managed to remain, have continued to enjoy the protection of the Baloch leaders and people. When Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed by the Pervez Musharraf Government in a military operation in August, 2006, among those who died with him were Baloch Hindus, whom he had taken under his protection.

7. When Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister in the early 1980s, one of the Baloch leaders, who had great love and admiration for her, wanted to celebrate the wedding of his daughter in New Delhi so that she could attend and bless the couple. She had happily agreed to it, but then had second thoughts and persuaded him not to do so. She was worried that the ISI might project him as an Indian agent.

8.When Naraimha Rao was the Prime Minister in the early 1990s, another Baloch leader, who had played a legendary role in the first war of Baloch independence and who was very ill, chose to come to India and die in its soil as a mark of his admiration and gratitude for India. As desired by him, after his death, his body was sent to his home village in Balochistan for burial.

9. Secularism is in the blood of most Balochs----whether young or old, whether rural or urban, whether educated or illiterate. There are exceptions. Some have joined the fundamentalist parties. But have you ever heard of a Baloch member of any jihadi terrorist organisation? Have you ever heard of the involvement of Balochs in jihadi terrorism in India? Have you ever heard of any Baloch sympathy for Al Qaeda or the Taliban? Have you ever heard of any Baloch member of the Pakistani diaspora abroad involved in extremism or terrorism? Have you ever heard of suicide terrorism by Balochs?

10. Yes, there have been instances of Yemeni-Balochs joining Al Qaeda and participating in brutal acts of terrorism. Some of the suspects responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, the US journalist, in January-February, 2002, were Yemeni-Balochs. These were the offspring of mixed marriages between Baloch men and Yemeni women. But such instances were an exception. By and large, the Balochs have kept out of jihadi terrorism.

11. The Balochs have been ferociously fighting for their independence again and again. They fought their first war of independence in the early 1970s immediately after Bangladesh was born. They thought they could emulate the example of the Bengalis, but Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, then in power, ruthlessly crushed them with his Air Force. The Balochs sent out frantic appeals for help to Indira Gandhi. Despite her love for the Balochs, she decided not to take any action. She felt it would be neither advisable nor feasible. Moreover, she was aware of the concerns of the Shah of Iran over the freedom struggle of the Balochs of Pakistan. Iran has a large Baloch population on its side of its border with Pakistan.

12. The Balochs were totally suppressed by the Punabi-dominated Pakistani Army till 2004. But their desire for independence has remained as strong as ever. They started a second war of independence in December 2005, which continues till now despite the most ruthless actions taken to suppress them by the previous Government of Pervez Musharraf and the present Government of Asif Ali Zardari. Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed by the Musharraf Government. Many of the young leaders of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) were subsequently killed. Despite this, the freedom struggle continues.

13. When the second freedom struggle started in December, 2005, I wrote as follows in an article titled "Balochistan: Second War of Independence” available at http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers17/paper1651.html : "The second Baloch War of Independence poses a moral dilemma for India. The Balochs had stood by Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party during the independence struggle against the British. They had opposed the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. If India had to be partitioned, they would have preferred an independent Balochistan. The Balochs were the closest to Gandhi's heart. Due to reasons of realpolitik, we let them down during their first War of Independence. The same realpolitik would dictate painful inaction by us now too. But that does not mean we should hesitate to draw the attention of the international community to the ruthless massacre of the Baloch nationalists by the Pakistan army. We owe our moral support to them. The struggle for an independent Balochistan is part of the unfinished agenda of the Partition."

14. I was gratified subsequently when the Government of Dr.Manmohan Singh publicly expressed its concern over the developments in Balochistan. But, subsequently, for understandable reasons, it chose to observe a silence. It would not have been in the interests of the Balochs and their freedom struggle to give the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment an opportunity and a pretext to project them as Indian surrogates, which they definitely are not.

15. Initially, the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment started projecting them as "miscreants". When it was not able to suppress them, it started calling them as terrorists no different from Al Qaeda and their freedom struggle as a terrorist movement. It also started alleging Indian support for them, which is totally baseless.

16. As I had pointed out in my past articles, the Pakistan Army has been misusing some of the military equipment such as helicopter gunships etc received by it from the US for use against Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban to suppress the Balochs. Despite the most brutal acts of suppression, the brave Balochs have continued with their freedom struggle.

17.Just as the Chinese have been demonising the followers of the Dalai Lama opposing the Chinese rule in Tibet as terrorists no different from Al Qaeda, the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment has been demonising the Baloch freedom-fighters as terrorists.

18. By failing to reject any reference to Balochistan in his joint statement with Prime Minister Yusef Raza Gilani of Pakistan at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Manmohan Singh has unwittingly made India a party to the Pakistani exercise to demonise the Baloch freedom struggle as a terrorist movement. As the President of the Congress (I), which has always enjoyed bonds of strong love and sympathy with the Baloch leaders and people, you should repair the damage done to the interests of the nation and the image of your party by Manmohan Singh by his unwise action by clarifying the position of your party.

Source
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5C...paper3313.html

(Posted for informational purpose only)

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

NEW DELHI: Indian government officials on Thursday, denied receiving a dossier from Pakistan carrying reports of India’s involvement in terrorist activities in Pakistan.

According to a Times of India report, Indian government sources called the ‘allegations baseless.’ The government sources have denied that any such dossier was shown to the Prime Minister at Sharm-el-Sheikh.

‘Ever since the formation of the Joint Terror Mechanism at the Havana summit, Pakistan has continually made allegations citing names and places, and India has chased these clues and found them to be baseless,’ the report added. ‘Regarding the accusation that Indian consulates in Afghanistan were being used chiefly against Pakistan, the government sources clarified that the consulates were for Afghani citizens and had nothing to do with Pakistan.’

Baqir Sajjad Syed adds: Earlier, Pakistani government sources told Dawn that a dossier containing proofs of India’s involvement in subversive activities in Pakistan was handed over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh during their recent meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.

Pakistan has also shared these evidences with the United States and Afghanistan, specifically asking the latter to prevent the use of its soil for disruptive activities against it. Although the information given to India is being kept highly secret, broad outlines of the dossier available with Dawn reveal details of Indian contacts with those involved in attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the Manawan police station. Operatives of RAW who remained in touch with the perpetrators of the attacks have been identified and proofs of their interaction have been attached.

Besides, description of Indian arms and explosives used in the attack on the Sri Lankan team has been made part of the dossier.
Names and particulars of the perpetrators, who illegally entered Pakistan from India and joined their accomplices who had reached Lahore from Waziristan, have been mentioned. Furthermore, the evidence of Indian link lists the safe houses being run by RAW in Afghanistan, where terrorists are trained and launched for missions in Pakistan.

The dossier also broadly covers the Indian connection in terror financing in Pakistan.A substantial part of the shared material deals with the Balochistan insurgency and Indian linkages with the insurgents, particularly Bramdagh Bugti, Burhan and Sher Khan. Pictures of their meetings with Indian operatives are part of the evidence, which also describes Bugti’s visit to India and the meetings he had with Indian secret service personnel.

It makes mention of the India-funded Kandahar training camp, where Baloch insurgents, particularly those from Bugti clan, were being trained and provided arms and ammunition for sabotage activities in Balochistan.
The sources claim that Dr Singh agreed to ‘look into Pakistani claims’ and to take ‘corrective action’ if proven. He is said to have assured Gilani that India is against interference in other countries and Pakistan’s stability was important for them.

A joint communiqué, released after the Gilani-Singh meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, reflected information-sharing because it included reference to Balochistan and the information available to Pakistan; reiteration of Indian commitment to a stable and democratic Pakistan; and an agreement on sharing real time credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats. Gilani’s close aides confirmed that in his meeting with Singh he took up the issue of India’s involvement in the attack on the Sri Lankan team and other subversive acts. Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said: ‘Yes, these issues were discussed.’

Source

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

M D Nalapat

There are two members of the Manmohan Singh Cabinet of whom it can with certainty be said that neither has made money while in politics. One is the Prime Minister himself, the other being Defense Minister A K Antony,whose wife and children still use public buses for transport. Dr Singh was brought into the Government of India as Economic Advisor in 1991,by then Commerce Minister, Subramanian Swamy. Subsequently,a year later,incoming prime minister Narasimha Rao promoted him as Finance Minister, a post in which (helped by his closest confidante,Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Manmohan Singh shepherded the economy through its major economic reforms since 1947.

In the light of such a record, it was expected that in 2004,when he took over as Prime Minister in 2004, he would focus on economic issues. But the decades spent in economics seems to have dulled the allure of the subject for Dr Singh,who during the past five years has concentrated much more on foreign and security policy than on economics. In the view of several members of Delhi’s security and foreign policy establishment, this has been akin to an Olympian hockey player suddenly switching to Test cricket. Not surprisingly,they give him low marks for his efforts,especially at forging better ties with Pakistan, a policy held hostage to any mass terror attack in India

An example of his alleged clumsiness in diplomacy was the unusually curt behaviour of Dr Singh to Pakistan President Asif Zardari on the sidelines of the mid-June G-8 meeting at Yekaterinburg,Russia. Just how the indian Prime Minister was - in his version of the event - oblivious of the presence of the huge contingent of international media that were clicking and shouting away can perhaps be explained by a hidden propensity on Dr Singh’s part to transcendental meditation. Whatever, his hectoring of President Zardari about Pakistan being the venue for the planning of terror attacks on India went down as badly with the professionals as it delighted a arge constituency of Pakistan-sceptics in India. Was the G8 drama simply the politician in Dr Singh taking charge, so as to score populist points at home? Or was it his indignation at the November 2008 Mumbai massacre boiling over when he met President Zardari after a gap of nine months ? Whatever,as the testy lecture would have further damaged President Zardari’s standing at home, it was regarded as unwise by an establishment that sees the Pakistan President as the only member of the highest echelons of government not committed to what is seen in Delhi as the Pakistan military’s “untreatable” hatred for India. Zardari’s statements on terrorism and on the need for India and Pakistan to work together have created a constituency for him within the policy establishment,that sees him as a check on the “adventurism” of the military. Unlike Prime Minister Gilani,who is regarded as being in thrall to the line espoused by the military

Thus, the policy establishment in Delhi raised a collective eyebrow at Prime Minister Singh’s effusive conduct during the meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Gilani at Sharm-el-Sheikh a month after the Zardari “gaffe”. Dr Singh further horrified this group by allowing a reference to Balochistan in the Joint statement. The security and foreign policy establishment in India believes that Islamabad is raising the “bogey of Balochistan” in order to use the allegations as a lever to get Delhi to scale back its growing diplomatic presence in Southern Afghanistan,and believe that Dr Singh “fell into the trap” by agreeing to a Joint Statement that included this subject. While his advisors were reportedly against such a reference,Manmohan Singh took a personal decision to allow it to be inserted,thus putting in play this presumed “lever against India” that can get discussed at summits between the two countries

In India, those in positions of responsibility usually draw a clear line between the civilian and the military establishments in Pakistan,seeing in the former a possible ally against the relentless “anti-India” attitude of the military. Here,President Zardari is seen as being much more liberal than Prime Minister Gilani,who is regarded as being a close personal friend of COAS Ashfaq Kayani. While a few unkind commentators have pointed to the common Punjabi link between Singh and Gilani to explain the unusual warmth shown by the Indian Prime Minister to his Pakistani counterpart,this would be unfair to Dr Singh,who is more at home in New York or London than he is in Chandigarh or Ludhiana. Clearly,Manmohan Singh saw the damage his G8 grandstanding had caused to his reputation as an exemplar of courtesy and grace,and sought to make amends,but this time with the wrong person. All in all, there has been an eloquent silence in Delhi about Dr Singh’s performance at Sharm-el-Sheikh and the Joint Statement, with only the Prime Minister’s Office busily seeking to undo the damage by organising television sound bytes from Dr Singh that are far more hardline than the Joint Statement,and explain it in a manner that is plainly inconsistent with the released text

By organizing such a flipflop,the Prime Minister’s handlers have done Dr Singh a disservice. He is gambling that even the Pakistan military - faced with the threat from the Taliban - will sheath its sword against India, and hopefully agree to a policy of engagement and even an eventual alliance with India. The economist Dr Singh knows that such a warmth in relations would do wonders for the economies of both India and Pakistan, and he seems to be willing to “go the extra mile” to ensure that his gamble succeed. And in the process,proves wrong those in Delhi (and they are many) who believe that the Pakistan military will never accept a policy of peace with India Behind that affable exterior, his friends know that there is a ruthless determination in Dr Singh’s character that makes him pursue objectives through numerous obstacles.An example is the India-US nuclear deal,that almost caused the fall of the government a year ago. Despite volleys of criticism, Dr Singh held on to the deal,and was finally rewarded with its approval by the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group,overcoming strong ( but hidden) opposition from global powers such as China. It helped that for commercial reasons,both France and Russia have been enthusiastic backers of the deal,and both have been rewarded with contracts for nuclear reactors of about $10 billion each over the life of the agreements being worked out with India. Not that the US is far behind. Washington is hoping to net its own $10 billion,by selling the Indian Air Force 126 front-line fighter aircraft within the year.This would give the US the chance to displace Russia from its longstanding position as the largest supplier of defense equipment to India.There was a time when India and the US were on opposite sides during the decades of the Cold War. Today,the two countries are trotting towards an alliance,establishing multiple links almost every week

Manmohan Singh is right,when he argues that the priority has to be economic growth. He believes that this needs an interface of peace with India’s nuclear neighbours China and Pakistan,and has been looking for ways of improving ties with both. The Pakistan army’s vigorous offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley gives rise to the chance that the military too will join with Zardari and other civilan leaders in Pakistan who accept that peace with India is needed for the swifter development of both countries. Perhaps Manmohan Singh will be rewarded with success on India-Pakistan, confounding the critics, just as he has been on the nuclear deal.Certainly the Pakistan army’s vigorous drive against the Taliban has made many Pakistan-sceptics in India wonder whether they need to rethink their conviction,that the men in khakhi will never allow peace between India and Pakistan.

—The writer is a Vice-Chair, Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair & Professor of Geopolitics Manipal University.

Source
http://pakobserver.net/200907/24/Articles01.asp

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Long-standing distrust was made worse by the Mumbai attacks. But Manmohan Singh says many on both sides crave peace. Plus, the U.S. wants Pakistan to focus on internal strife.

Reporting from New Delhi -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday faced down critics who have charged his government with selling out to Pakistan, arguing that engagement is the best option provided it's accompanied by similar good-faith measures by Pakistan and a stronger Indian anti-terrorism capability.

Singh's newly reelected government has come under fire from political opponents and the nation's hyperactive broadcast media after the two wary neighbors pledged to improve ties this month on the periphery of a developing-nations conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik.

Singh's hourlong presentation in parliament came a little more than a week after a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that was aimed at reducing tensions between the longtime adversaries. The U.S. wants Pakistan to concentrate on fighting insurgents on its territory, particularly along its porous western border with Afghanistan, rather than focusing on India to the east.

"I believe there's a large constituency for peace in both countries," said Singh, dressed in a blue turban, black vest and white shirt. "I believe it's as much Pakistan's interest as it is ours."

But he also said India must protect itself by bolstering its maritime, anti-terrorism and policing capabilities. He urged Pakistan to bring those behind the November terrorist attacks in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai to justice and to do everything possible to prevent it from happening again, warning that relations would not weather another such crisis.

The Mumbai assault by Pakistani-based terrorists, which killed 166 people, derailed a fragile process launched in 2004 aimed at resolving tensions between the neighbors, including a long-standing dispute over Kashmir. The two countries, both nuclear armed, have fought three wars over Kashmir and other issues since 1947.

In a poke at the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which accused him of selling out, Singh noted that the party had engaged with Pakistan when it was in power despite alleged terrorist attacks against India.

Pakistani leaders have gone further than ever before, Singh said, by formally briefing Indian officials on the results of an investigation, acknowledging that Pakistanis were involved in a terrorist act and handing over a 34-page dossier on the Mumbai plotters.

Pakistani analysts said intelligence sharing is among the most promising outcomes of the renewed dialogue. However, some bristle over Indian charges that Islamabad is not doing enough to fight terrorists. Pakistan recently put five men on trial in connection with the Mumbai attacks.

Indian leaders counter that Pakistan should arrest and prosecute Hafiz Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group that authorities say masterminded the Mumbai attacks. Saeed was released from house arrest in June on grounds of insufficient evidence.

Indian analysts credited Singh with a solid, statesman-like presentation and acknowledged that engagement is important. But several made it clear that distrust across the shared border remains deep.

"Singh is an effective speaker," said K. Subrahmanyam, a strategic affairs analyst. "But there's a culture of untruth linked to Pakistan. They're only taking advantage of us."

Singh was accused of moving too slowly a few years ago when then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf showed interest in improving relations. Singh wasn't strong enough politically to push through a deal at the time, said Salman Haider, an analyst and former Indian foreign secretary. Musharraf has since stepped down.

But bolstered by a stronger postelection mandate and a well-received U.S.-India nuclear agreement, Singh may now have more interest in a deal as part of a bid to bolster his legacy, Haider said.

In his speech Wednesday, Singh essentially asked Indian voters to take a leap of faith without knowing the outcome, including whether there would be another attack linked to Pakistan and whether Pakistan would really crack down on insurgents, said Manoj Joshi, commentary editor with the Mail Today newspaper in New Delhi. "He's put out his own political capital on this," he said.

Among the tangible benefits that Singh said would result from better ties were increased trade, travel and development opportunities.

Shaqeel Qalander, a furniture maker on the Indian side of divided Kashmir, said business links are the best way to spur confidence between the wary neighbors.

Last year, the two sides signed a deal allowing 21 items, including furniture, to cross the so-called Line of Control dividing Kashmir, but the agreement was derailed by the Mumbai attacks.

"So far, I haven't sold any furniture, but I'm hopeful," Qalander said. "Unless buyers and sellers meet frequently, how can you build trust?"

Source
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...0,709568.story

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly