Way out: Let us focus on Valley, let US handle Gen

When seen from an economic and technological point of view much has changed for the better. Sadly, the same cannot be said of our politics or politicians. Here, it has been downhill at such a rapid pace that at our next general election we face the grim choice between an Italian prime minister on the one hand and a Hindu, fascist one on the other.

The deterioration, though, that is more important this week is in our relations with Pakistan. We were not on particularly good terms in 1987 either, please remember, and there was all that fuss about a military exercise by the Indian army called Operation Brass Tacks which caused an eyeball to eyeball confrontation along our borders but it is hard to think of a time when things were as bad between us as they are today. And, whatever else we can blame Atal Behari Vajpayee for we cannot blame him for this.

If the proxy war turns into open war General Pervez Musharraf will have only himself to blame. No Indian Prime Minister in recent times has done more to try and bring peace to the sub-continent than Vajpayee and if there could have been the smallest reciprocation from the other side we would today have been on the brink of lasting peace and not war.

Why does General Musharraf not see this? Because, judging from his interview to the Washington Post and last week’s television address, the General appears to be suffering from a serious attack of megalomania.

How else to explain his comment, to Steve Coll of The Washington Post, that the present crisis has been created by India in order to destabilise his government? If the General’s speech was ‘‘disappointing and dangerous’’, to use Jaswant Singh’s words, the interview is being seen in Delhi’s corridors of power as the rantings of a psychopath. There appears to be agreement that all chances of peace with Pakistan will have to be postponed until that country can find itself another ruler.

So, if not peace will there be war? Not if India can help it and not if the Americans can put enough pressure on their current favourite military ruler to get him to desist from exporting terrorism.

But, this is where the situation gets seriously tricky. Although, the public stand taken by the Vajpayee government is that all acts of terrorism in India are personally ordered by the General, privately senior ministers admit that there is growing evidence that groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are now functioning on their own. The jehad is out of control and one of its objectives is to cause a war between India and Pakistan, preferably a nuclear war.

In this terrifying scenario what are India’s options? Well, if there is almost nothing we can do about the external aspects of the problem there is a great deal that can and must be done to bring peace inside Kashmir. The Vajpayee government’s biggest political failure has been its complete inability to formulate a policy for Kashmir.

In the absence of a policy it has stumbled from one feeble, half-hearted effort to the next so we had that ceasefire two years ago and then when nothing happened there were those almost farcical attempts to hold talks with Kashmiri militant groups with K.C. Pant as the Indian government’s interlocutor. And, now that all else has failed the government pins its hopes on being able to hold ‘‘free and fair’’ elections to the state assembly in October.

The last election saw the National Conference come to power with less than 15% Kashmiris voting and something similar could happen again so the election is unlikely to be a solution. There can be no solution without a policy that outlines a clear roadmap. A solution to our domestic problem in Kashmir is needed more urgently than ever before.

It will not come through flying visits by the Prime Minister and ad hoc announcements of economic and other packages. If we concentrate on our internal problems in Kashmir and leave the Americans to deal with their favourite General we might find a way out of the frightening morass we are trapped in.

Meanwhile, to end on a happy note, it is nice to have the Fifth Column back in the newspaper where it began.

Tavleen Singh can be contacted at tavleensingh@expressindia.com