The Mush quotient

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf8217;s remarks to an American television channel that the Bush Administration threatened to bomb his nation into Stone Age in the wake of 9/11 should not surprise. The precise words used to convey America8217;s message to Pakistan in September 2001 don8217;t matter. The threat to attack Pakistan was implicit in the Bush Administration8217;s demand to know, urgently, whether Musharraf was with the US or against it in the war on terrorism. Musharraf was candid enough to acknowledge that he chose to cooperate with the US, in his own interest as well as Pakistan8217;s. Five years after 9/11, as Musharraf met Bush at the White House on Friday, the question whether Pakistan is with the US or against it, has become even more important.

A resurgent Taliban is not just threatening to destabilise the Hamid Karzai government, it also undercuts Bush8217;s claims to political successes in Afghanistan over the last five years. President Karzai8217;s charge at the United Nations General Assembly this week that Pakistan is not doing enough to curb cross-border support for the Taliban finds resonance in an American political debate utterly disenchanted with Musharraf8217;s record on the Taliban. His latest deal with the Taliban in Waziristan has convinced all but those who inhabit a make-believe world that more pressure must be brought to bear on the Pakistan Army.

There is no way of knowing whether renewed American pressure on Musharraf will be effective. Even as it demands more visible action from Pakistan on its eastern frontiers, the US may not yet be in a position to dump Musharraf. This, precisely, is India8217;s dilemma too. Like the US, India must find ways to engage Musharraf even as it turns up the heat on him on cross-border terrorism. The decision to establish a joint mechanism on counter-terrorism must be seen as only one element of a complex policy that seeks to induce fundamental changes in the behaviour of the Pakistani state. So long as Pakistan remains a part of both the problem and solution in the war on terror, neither India nor the US has an alternative.