Bring out the evidence

Horror over the terrorist attack on Parliament is understandable. The demand for action is also understandable. What is not understandable is the angry response to the argument for restraint. Evidently, the nation’s patience has been exhausted by a terrorism that has gone on for over two decades, particularly in Kashmir.

One way to deal with the scourge is the Israeli way, which the Indian government has condemned. The other is to adopt the American way. The US sought the cooperation of all countries before it struck. The first way, Tel Aviv’s response, was unilateral. The second has been collective, involving the UN, though belatedly.

New Delhi should opt for the second mode. It must seek the backing of the international community. That means ‘credible evidence’, which India should share with as many powers as possible. The world knows about the age-old enmity between India and Pakistan. It may take New Delhi’s demarche to Islamabad asking it to crack down on the Lashkar-e-Toiba, in the same vein. The crucial part is evidence. Leave the TV outburst by Major General Rashid Qureshi, press secretary of the Pakistani president. The response by foreign office spokesperson Aziz Ahmed is that Pakistan is willing to examine any evidence provided by India on the involvement of the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Islamabad may fudge the issue and deny it had anything to do with the Lashkar. It may even denounce it, particularly when the US has listed it among the banned outfits. But in the recent issue of the Friday Times, a popular weekly from Lahore, the Lashkar’s connection with the ISI and official patronage to the outfit have been well documented. The weekly has also disclosed the Lashkar’s close connection with Islamic fundamentalist organisations in Pakistan.

It is time Home minister L.K. Advani released the much-awaited White Paper on the ISI. In fact, whatever evidence New Delhi has on terrorist activity should be made public. Let the world know how India has been suffering at the hands of terrorists, trained, armed and sheltered by Pakistan. The carnage on September 11 and hostilities in Afghanistan have shocked the international community. It will take India’s woes in the proper perspective, especially when it has not done so earlier.

It has been proved beyond doubt that the ISI trained, armed and guided the Taliban and that Pakistani troops and officers fought along with them till the last minute. When Pakistan found it had no option except to avow support to the US, General Pervez Musharraf took a U-turn. All that Islamabad had built collapsed like a house of cards. Musharraf justified the new policy ‘‘in the best national interest which was motivated by the concerns of security.’’ He may have sounded opportunistic but he managed to stay in the good books of Washington.

We have yet not reconciled to our own position — of not being asked, having offered all our support within one hour of the attacks in New York and Washington. How could the US woo Pakistan, whose complicity with the Taliban was beyond doubt? We went on telling the world that a dictatorship was being preferred to a democratic state. Probably it was not that black or white. Probably America had no choice. Perhaps it chose Pakistan because it has a long border with Afghanistan.

The point for us to feel elated about is that Afghanistan, a breeding ground for terrorists, is no more a launching pad for militancy. Terrorism will no longer be exported to Kashmir from there. There was a time when Musharraf was thick with the terrorists. He was unsure of his ground even when he took action against them initially. In Sind, he arrested some but released them quickly. He was probably testing the waters. Subsequently, he joined issue with them. He has detained many and faced the worst type of demonstrations in support of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Musharraf has also dismissed the ISI chief, transferred two top army commanders and demoted some middle-rank officers baptised during the the Zia-ul Haq regime. The military — one-third of it bigoted — may well have been cleaned up.

This mopping up must have emboldened Musharraf. He has enunciated harsh measures to discipline thousands of madrassas which have been training nearly five lakh students in fundamentalism every year for the last two decades. The madrassas will need to register, submit their accounts for audit and modernise their curriculum. This is something we dare not do against the madrassa-like institutions in India. The military set-up is best equipped for such tasks. For the first time in many years, the Pakistani intelligentsia is happy. The wave of Talibanisation, which was taking over the society, is receding. Some leading journalists and academics who were in Delhi last month were amazed to find India indifferent and uninformed. Any step against fundamentalists in Pakistan strengthens our secular society.

Musharraf’s Achilles heel is that he lacks electoral backing. The test will come next year when Pakistan has to return to democracy under the orders of the Supreme Court. Pakistan may not turn into a democratic polity. The army has too much at stake in the policy Pakistan pursues. The army in a third world country seldom returns to the barracks having once tasted power. It is worse in Pakistan because authoritarianism is woven deep into the warp and woof of a society organised on the basis of Bonapartism and feudalism.

The extent to which Pakistan becomes a modern liberal state will be significant for us. It is unfortunate it still believes that the terrorists it sends across the border are jehadis. This has only communalised the society. The supply of arms, training or money in the name of religion is equally divisive.

The important issue that Pakistan must face is that things can go out of hand if it connives with the activities of terrorists who are working against India. Those who attacked the Parliament House may be loose cannons. But there will be many more like them. Pakistan has to find a way out to deal with them in its own territory. What New Delhi and Islamabad should also be worrying about is that the US looks like staying in the region. It may have a base in Afghanistan and also ‘protect’ oil and gas in the country. The US would like to ‘overlook’ China, Russia, India and Pakistan. It would also like to ‘influence’ events in the region. This is the greatest danger to both India and Pakistan. They must jointly act to keep the US from the region, even if they do not see eye to eye on many points.

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