Ominous Neighbourhood Scene

With the pre-poll campaign bereft of any real issue, one is witness to unprecedented verbal slugfests—Gujarat CM Narendra Modi slamming the Congress as a budiya compared to the youthful BJP and then calling it gudiya in response to Priyanka Gandhi’s prompt repartee; PM Manmohan Singh paying back L.K. Advani in the same coin recalling how the former Union Home Minister’s self-proclaimed “iron man†image had melted in the heat of the Kandahar hijack drama—thus bringing out the complete lack of policy and perspectives in this electoral battle. Meanwhile the lacklustre campaign for the first phase of the parliamentary polls has come to an end and pollsters are continuing their grim forecast that no party or combination this time will come anywhere near the half-way mark in the Lok Sabha.

Against this dismal electoral backdrop on the national plane the situation in our neighbourhood has acquired an ominous character.

In Sri Lanka the authorities announced a 48-hour pause in the allout offensive against the LTTE (that is characterised by both wanton assault on human rights and ruthless savagery) on April 13-14 (coinciding with the Sinhala and Tamil new year) but alleged that the Tigers holed up in the 17 sq km No-Fire-Zone (NFZ) persisted in firing at the security forces stationed in the NFZ territory.

However, the real danger at the moment comes from the Taliban in Pakistan. The Taliban insurgents, who have consolidated their hold over large tracts of the territory in the north and the west, are reportedly teaming up with local militant groups to make inroads in Punjab, home to more than half of Pakistanis. This alliance, according to the Pakistani and US authorities, poses a serious risk to the country‘s stability. As The New York Times informs,

As American drone attacks disrupt Taliban and Qaeda strongholds in the tribal areas, the insurgents are striking deeper into Pakistan—both in retaliation and in search of safe havens.

Why is this happening?

Independent Pakistani journalist Beena Sarwar, a keen observer and analyst of events within the country, offers an explanation in a write-up in The Hindu:

One reason for the Pakistani state’s apparent paralysis is that the armed forces and large sections of the population think of this as America’s war, compared to the previous Afghan war with its religious trappings.

But she hastens to add immediately thereafter:

In fact, that was less ‘our war’ than the current one, which threatens the very existence of the Pakistani state.

And in this situation the Pakistan President, Asif Ali Zardari, signed an accord putting part of the country under Shariah law following the passage of a resolution to that effect in the National Assembly (parliament) obviously under Taliban pressure. In fact a spokesman for the extremists, Muslim Khan, had warned only the previous day, on April 13, that Pakistani lawmakers who did not support the peace deal with the Taliban imposing Shariah law in the northwestern Swat valley will be considered to have abandoned Islam. Following this development the Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said: “God willing it (the agreement) will have a positive impact on the situation in Swat.†But many feel the deal would go a long way towards opening the floodgates to the “Talibanisation†of swathes of Pakistan.

Can India remain a passive onlooker of these serious events which directly impinge on our security and national interests? Unfortunately that is precisely what New Delhi is doing thereby betraying once more its pathetic dependence on Washington to do the needful in the circumstances.

April 15, S.C.