Prozac Please

Almost a month and a half after the attacks in Bombay, there seems to be no sign that Pakistan is willing to seriously move on terrorist groups that exist within its borders. Although no one really expected immediate moves in this regard by the Pakistani government, the events that have unfolded since the attack are most likely to leave the informed Indian depressed and decidedly suspicious of Pakistan's willingness to combat 'terror', something it has emphasised time and again.

In particular, the Pakistani government's continuous 'flip-flopping' on major issues and the fact that it is still in official denial of the nationality of the terrorists, (let alone anything else) is hardly likely to build confidence or trust in the minds of the Indian people. Sitting in India, we have watched as President Zardari says one thing on one day, and another on the next. We watched as Nawaz Sharif admitted to Kasab being a Pakistani and then was forced to retract his statement; watched as NSA Durrani was sacked for admitting Kasab was a Pakistani; watched as a prominent Pakistani TV Channel interviewed Kasab's father in a village in Pakistan. We watched as Pakistan dismissed, within a day of receiving, a dossier of evidence that India supplied as 'un-credible'. We have watched this with a mixture of anger and disbelief. And we have debated endlessly about who is in charge of Pakistan and whether or not there is a group in Pakistani politics, however small it may be, which actually wishes to crack down on groups responsible for the attacks. Today the ordinary Indian is none the clearer. Justice seems an unrealistic wish. Perhaps we should just hope that another attack does not happen.

There was a hope that the US would put a decisive amount of pressure on the Pakistani administration to act on the those responsible for the attacks. After all, 6 citizens of the United States had died in the attacks. Yet I believe that ultimately India will have to fight Her battles alone-no one will fight them for us. As long as Pakistan can use its active participation in the war against the Taliban on the Afghan border as a bargaining chip with the United States, the US is unlikely to weigh in strongly on India's side.

The US is clearly stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to policy on Pakistan. Pakistani action against the Taliban is moderate at best. It is my belief that the Pakistani administration still sees the Taliban as its best bet in Afghanistan. Certainly, the current government, with its strong Indian ties (India has pumped an unprecedented amount of aid into Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, and we have a consular presence in not one but five Afghan cities), and determination to destroy Taliban havens inside Pakistan, does not enjoy strong ties with the Pakistani. Yet the US cannot really act against Pakistan because without its cooperation, the war against the Taliban is impossible to wage. As long as Pakistan does not provoke India into resorting to military action, what it does with India is of secondary concern to the US. Yet one cant help but feel that the sooner the US realises that fighting terrorism in one corner of a country and condoning it another is hardly going to make you win a war, the better is for not only them, but the international community at large.

I do not really fault the action of our government in the aftermath of the Bombay attacks. We have taken a fairly consistent line, and barring the notable exception of A R Antulay, politicians across the spectrum have spoken in a fairly united voice. To bomb Pakistan, as many enraged Indians had called for, would have been a most irresponsible step, for obvious reasons. Instead India must persist with the diplomatic offensive on Pakistan. The difficult decision that India must take pertains to policy in the long run. Should India take the 'hard line' and say no movement on anything else until the terrorists are brought to book, or the more 'moderate line' which would involve maintaining the demand for justice while ultimately looking to reinvigorate the peace process. Both sides have legitimate arguments for and against. To briefly outline one: going back on the peace process is something that the terrorists arguably want, and thus a sort of 'reward' for their actions. However persisting with the peace process despite various attacks is something India has tried before with little tangible result, save the regular punctuation of bomb blasts in our cities.

While the Pakistani administration may gloat over India's perceived helplessness, what is clear is that it is playing with fire. Increasingly large parts of Pakistan are no go zones for Pakistanis themselves. Pakistani cities are bombed fairly regularly too. World confidence in Pakistan's reliability as a partner in the war on terror is dwindling. Indeed, Pakistan is slowly burning its bridges with the rest of the world, in a bid to satisfy what seems like a political obsession with an anti-India policy. In an attempt to inflict a thousand small cuts on India, one can only hope, for their sake, that they don't inflict a mortal wound on themselves, and change the very character of the society in which they live. One can't help but feel that good relations with India should be a goal for the Pakistani administration. The present environment, rife with allegation and counter-allegation, with high levels of suspicion, is unhealthy, dangerous and depressing.