As Islamic extremists threaten to take over Pakistan, India has three options. One, we could turn our back by saying the Pak Army has made a mess of the Great Game it had inherited from British India. We could let Pakistan stew in its own juice. Second, India could make life a little more difficult for Pakistan on its western frontiers. Islamabad already accuses India of supporting the Baloch nationalist movement and working with Kabul against Pakistan’s interests in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s paranoia apart, geography tells us that India can never overcome the reality of a long and open border between our two western neighbours.

The third and more sensible option over the longer term is for India to assist Pakistan in extricating itself from the trouble it finds itself in. A weak state in Islamabad, vulnerable to extremist forces, would be as harmful to India as an aggressive one.

When he meets the Pakistani premier Shaukat Aziz on the margins of the Saarc summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must offer a genuine reassurance to Islamabad that it has no desire to take advantage of Pakistan’s problems in its trans-Indus territories. Manmohan Singh could also reaffirm India’s willingness to convert the current ceasefire on the Indo-Pak border, which is now more than three years old, into lasting peace and tranquility. With fewer burdens on its eastern front, the Pak Army should be better positioned to restore authority on its western frontiers. To lend credibility to its reassurance, India should promise to intensify the current efforts at demilitarising the Siachen glacier and resolving the Kashmir question.

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