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Journalism of Courage
The Pakistani establishment evidently believes in breaking important news to the world and its people alike in small, digestible instalments 8212; even if it amounts to stating the obvious. So, after resolutely turning a blind eye to the oodles of proof India has offered in the form of unclaimed bodies of Pakistani soldiers and identification papers, Pakistan8217;s Army Chief Parvez Musharraf has admitted that, yes indeed, his army regulars actually forayed across the Line of Control. And while he continues to insist that most of the infiltrators were so-called mujahideen and that his country8217;s involvement was a result of quot;offensive action by the Indiansquot;, his statement does at least shatter the consistently repeated, and ludicrous, myth that his army was an innocent bystander. But as with all else in that nation8217;s inscrutable power dynamics, one must investigate not just the facts but the timing and possible reasons for their sudden revelation.
Musharraf is clearly engaged in a damage-control exercise. Incontrast to indications in the infamous Beijing tapes that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had been largely unaware of the military preparations for the Kargil escapade, Musharraf declared on Friday that Sharif was well-informed throughout, that quot;everyone has been on boardquot;. Is Musharraf now trying to deflect responsibility for the misadventure? One, reports indicate that there is a degree of bafflement among middle-rung armymen about the misadventure hatched by their bosses. Two, there is the ever-lurking danger of extremist groups and opposition parties whipping up popular frenzy over the Kargil turnaround. Accordingly, the army chief made the astounding claim that he had lost only 250 men in the conflict, in contrast to quot;1,500 to 1,700quot; Indians, whose government was doctoring the casualty figures to keep the nation8217;s morale high. As for the statement that Pak army regulars crossed the LoC, albeit in response to an Indian offensive, an increasingly critical domestic press has begun to drop this long-maintainedfiction. As a columnist wrote recently in a Pak newspaper: quot;The LoC was crossed by some 500 men. By sending in 30,000 men, artillery and military planes to dislodge them, Pakistan claims that India escalated the situation. The world has failed to see the logic of this argument.quot; If Musharraf was trying to establish a modicum of credibility in his interview to the BBC, he will have to admit to a few more uncomfortable truths, for at the moment he is not making much headway with even his own press.
