Indo-Pak Word War

Perhaps the Prime Minister's almost belligerent tone in Jalandhar is best explained by the occasion which was a memorial service for those...

Perhaps the Prime Minister8217;s almost belligerent tone in Jalandhar is best explained by the occasion which was a memorial service for those who lost their lives in Kargil. An early touch of election fever may also have had something to do with it. If that is so, Atal Behari Vajpayee will no doubt return in due course to the firm and measured language he customarily uses with Pakistan. The sooner he does so the better because it does sound as though he has allowed himself to be provoked by Gen Pervez Musharraf into speaking in an unwise fashion about nuclear war and about retrieving Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. That sort of talk has been heard before from members of his government. Although verbal pugilism has come to be expected of some BJP politicians, it takes on an altogether different meaning when the always restrained Vajpayee climbs into the ring.

Admittedly, there is nothing new in what was said: the threat of nuclear retaliation lies at the heart of the deterrent stance India has adopted; and asrecently as last week in London Indian officials were clarifying that India has never surrendered its claims to POK or the territory ceded by Pakistan to China.

It is the rhetorical use of these subjects at public meetings that causes the problem because it invites misunderstandings at home and abroad. It complicates the present and the future for no explicable reason. There is no discernible political gain in matching the noises coming from across the border and there is every possibility of arousing domestic concern by trying to do so. Vajpayee should not descend to the level of Pakistan8217;s military dictator. He should play the seasoned statesman to Musharraf8217;s blundering military man untutored in diplomacy and strategic affairs. To raise the temperature on Kashmir is to play the General8217;s game.

Musharraf has been trying from the day he ousted Nawaz Sharif to shore up his image by thrusting Kashmir on the attention of an unwilling world community. To that end he reiterates at every opportunity thatthere is no cause of tension but Kashmir even as acts of terrorism in the Valley are escalated.

Pakistan would like nothing better than to arouse international anxieties about conflict in this region. On the eve of an American presidential trip anything that suggests mounting tensions is bound to get great play in the world media. So far things have not been going its way. When a certain amount of ennui is setting in over Musharraf8217;s too frequent references to Kashmir, there is no need for India to react in a way that revives interest in the mutterings of the General.

As for the nuclear sabre-rattling from across the border, if it amounts to anything more than the routine performance, Pakistan ought to be warned not to be foolhardy. But surely there are better, more effective ways of doing that than getting a bunch of Haryanvi farmers worked up. Vajpayee should not allow himself to be ambushed by Pakistani rhetoric. Lahore was the right track and the condition for a resumption of talks should be thehalting of Pakistani aid to terrorists.