Cross connections

India is right to suspect that there is a lot more to the mystery of the alleged 8220;threatening8221; phone call from External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari nearly 48 hours into the aggression against Mumbai. The initial story out of Pakistan last Saturday described it as a 8220;hoax call8221; that led Islamabad to put its armed forces on high alert. Within hours, Zardari8217;s office insisted the call was 8220;genuine8221; and was put through to him only after 8220;verifying8221; its origin in New Delhi8217;s Foreign Office. On Sunday Mukherjee issued an angry denial that the call was ever made.

This public sparring comes long after the horses had bolted out of the barn. The real action was during November 28/29, when it looked like those who initiated the call came close to pushing India and Pakistan towards nuclear brinkmanship. And those could only be from persons with very sophisticated technological instruments at their command. That Zardari panicked and quickly reached out to friendly capitals is not in doubt. For Washington and London were calling New Delhi soon after they heard from Zardari.

While its restraint prevented an unwanted military escalation, India must urgently address the many challenges that have emerged from this dangerous episode. The first is to establish at the earliest opportunity a fool-proof system for crisis communication with our nuclear neighbour. Although a 8220;hotline8221; exists between the two foreign offices, it obviously was not of much use after Mumbai. India8217;s second and bigger challenge is to cope with the fact that it is

Pakistan8217;s army that controls the nukes while its political leaders are out of the loop. India clearly needs multiple layers of reliable communication with Pakistan.