The Commando in Musharraf
Men, Matters & Memories

By M L Kotru

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has come and gone leaving behind a framework that may perhaps put India-China relations on an even keel. But what is one to make of the Commando from across the border who will wing his way to the Indian capital over the week-end. Will the Commando in Pervez Musharraf spring more surprises on his host, the Indian Prime Minister? His current visit in fact is born of his capacity to surprise, a good commando's legitimate ploy. He simply wanted to watch one of the six cricket one-dayers his country's team was playing in India. If Indians invited him he would just love it. Dates etc, would be worked at mutual convenience.

New Delhi hemmed and it hawed before finally inviting Pervez Musharraf to witness the last one-dayer to be played at Delhi's far from complete Ferozshah Kotla ground. The visit wouldn't have the trappings of a formal State visit. Never mind that one, the General knew it well that the ''trappings'' were of no consequence. Said the General at a convention of students in Islamabad: cricket was really not what he was visiting Delhi for; it merely provided him an opportunity to jolt the Indians into talking Kashmir with him. The Kashmir issue, the commando in Musharraf believed, had perhaps been pushed to a back-burner and hence the need to bring it upfront.

The one-dayer and the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road reopening must be seen in the overall context of Musharraf's priorities. These were no more than mere confidence building measures. The real thing was to talk Kashmir, Musharraf clearly suggested at his monologue with the students' convention. The bus was just a modest beginning of an effort to help the ''divided'' Kashmiri families to meet each other.

The roadreopening did lead to a sense of euphoria, not wholly misplaced. Imagine the joy and happiness the reunion of the families commuting by the first bus in either direction would have brought to those involved is the process. But here again Musharraf and his men were upto their old tricks.

They it now transpires, wanted to carry across to their side as many of the younger kin of the slain militants as possible. It is possible that the military leadership genuinely wanted to help these unfortunate children; they may even have seen in them prospective Quislings who could be properly educated to serve future Pakistani interests in the State. Quite a few names of such prospective travellers on the bus from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad and vice versa have since been identified.

And, lo and behold, Musharraf wants the Hurriyat leadership from Srinagar to be enabled to take the bus. Why, because they favour secession from India. It was natural therefore that he should therefore oppose the idea of mainstream Kashmiri leaders taking the bus to Muzaffarabad. Why, because they would not pass the Musharraf litmus test, not nurturing separatist thoughts. To drive the point home he has invited Hurriyat leaders to meet him in Delhi the day he arrives.

Musharraf was is not loath to speak of a Kashmiri independence movement even as his bags for the Delhi visit were packed. The Kashmiri ''freedom fighters'' would continue to receive political, moral and diplomatic support from Pakistan, he said. At the moment it seems rather rashly perhaps- that we may be in for a repeat of the Agra fiasco, given the General's burning obsession with Kashmir. Not that his hosts in Delhi would be unwilling to discuss the issue but it would have to be done in the comprehensive context of Indo-Pak relations. And, then Dr Manmohan Singh who was there to see off the first lot of passengers on the bus from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad, had declared in the Kashmir summer capital not very long ago that India will not accept another partition, not another division of Kashmir, nor any change in the boundaries. At the same time he had indicated, and on later occasions as well, that India is ready to discuss other options Musharraf may have up his sleeve.

But according to the Musharraf book there really can be no denying a man like him. Remember how George Bush and company are eating out of his hands, as it were. Think of the encomiums showered on him and his leadership qualities by Condoleeza Rice when she came calling on him, the good, old reliable friend. Only that the people of Balochistan or of the NWFP or the Sindhis or, for that matter, all the radical Muslim leaders of Islamic parties in the country do not share the American view of the man. But, then, Musharraf is confident of his powers of persuasion, confident also that Dr Manmohan Singh may be unable to spurn his charm offersive and, who knows, might even accept a quick-fix solution to Kashmir proffered by the visitor from Pakistan!

One would without any reservation, like the India-Pakistan dialogue to proceed normally and in a manner that serves well the interests of the people of the two countries and, ofcourse, the people of Jammu and Kashmir. If it is his burning desire to help the Kashmiris there is so much he can do in tandem with India that could indeed transform the face of the State of Jammu and Kashmir and the sub-continent as a whole. Doing so would however deprive him of his raison de'tre.

Kashmir has over the years helped a succession of Pakistan's military dictators to keep people's minds preoccupied with the K word. How can Musharraf afford to be any different, though, he, more than any of his predecessors, is in a position to give a positive push to the nevermending Indo-Pak relations. More than anyone else, the people of Jammu and Kashmir would benefit the most from a fresh and innovative view of all the outstanding issues between the neighbouring countries. As for cricket diplomacy, one of Musharraf's predecessors, Gen Ziaul Haq, had given it a try by showing up at an Indo-Pak match in Jaipur and, to his credit, he had not loaded his visit with a hidden agenda. But then Zia was not a commando. I believe he was a plain artillery man.

China - angle versus factor! .…
Yours Randomly,

By Dr. R. L. Bhat

After decades bhai-bhai is again in the air. Even a grudging echo of Panch-Sheel could be heard though it was quickly overtaken by 11-points preferred by China. Of course, that is typically Chinese - they would always have their word and way as the Prime Minister Wen did when he skirted the UNSC membership issue. That, or anything else, did not deter the genial sardar who has gotten to prime-minister India from giving the China hand, extra-shakes. Yes, China is here again. But then, you can't ignore China today - not in the world and not at all in the Asian equation. For decades she lived in haughty isolation and the world could do nothing. Now she is wallowing in participation and the world is only too happy. With even the US admitting that its 'containment' of China has been overtaken by investment in Chinese economy, India simply cannot live without reckoning the giant across Himalayas. To be frank India never tried to do that. Nor, would the Indian intellectuals permit her even if she attempted to do so.

Indeed, it would not be widely off the mark to say the Indian opinion-masters - opinion 'makers' looks imprecise in the Indian context as the opinionated ones here are more habituated to imposing their opinions rather than soliciting them - have been living in actual awe of the giant. The opinion here has deferred to her; the politics has never really emerged from the China-shock, actual and ideational. Accordingly, the Indian strategy has ever been in dread of the dragon. Add to this the strange fact that though the SAARC-sisters are overly sensitive about India behaving as a big brother they have no compunctions in accepting China as the big brother here. From the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the Hindu kingdom of Nepal they keep looking to the dictatorship in north with more geniality than the democracy in the south. Indeed, there has been a more fruitful commerce of goods as well as ideas across the culture-linguistic divide than with the cultural and language continuity they all share with the Indian mass.

Indeed, it is a wonder why a wide spectrum of peoples is more comfortable dealing with a closed fist rather than an open hand? Or, why the socio-political as well as economical truths are not being appreciated as they stand. Indian politics still labors under the shadow of Mao and Marx even after they have long been given up for dead in the lands of Revolution. As no leader or analyst there ever tries of telling, Chinese opened up their nation and economy to market capitalism twenty, rather twenty-five years ago. The thinkers here are yet to get out of the socialist-communist fix, are still to accept market module. At the same time, nobody here tires of telling how fast the Chinese have progressed! While holding China as the model they rarely acknowledge the political bulldozing which their system permits the Chinese to brow beat dissent and dissensions with. To take another example, the Chinese have long buried the aged and passed to younger blood and belief, but the communist hankerers here still believe that the only wiser ones are the grey hairs. Now, how long do you think would somebody like Lalooji be tolerated in the land of dragon?

But, of course, the times are achanging. Calling China the Dragon is passé. Panda is the more accepted symbol. China today is hailed for market economy and capitalist ventures rather than the stubborn adherence to a defunct ideology. Only the other day the Indian communists, in what is seen as an open rebuff to the economic thinking and actions of the west Bengal government, harangued FDI by setting guidelines to restrict it to certain areas only. Of course, it all is done in deference to the needs and cares of the commoners. And here was the Chinese tourism director saying, the other day, that China has few small hotels that could cater to the common people. Yet, China boasts of countless classy expensive hotels. For, the government there is catering to the big-monies and goes out of way to make their stay comfortable, fulfilling and memorable. Nobody needs tell how they sterilized their population growths; it is well known. Yet it is rarely unacknowledged. It, or any other factor, is never mentioned when comparisons are mounted or when the Chinese model is lauded and lobbed around. Not to be emulated but to be shown around to prove how miserably India has failed.

That actually makes the distinction between 'angle' and 'factor' valid. There the intellectual opinion never matters. The dictated line is all. It somebody gets fired while standing in the line it is only inevitable. If the haughty tanks crush innocent protestors it is easily overlooked. Nobody there blackmails the government into submitting to the goodwill or such other things as the opinions here do. Even the patronizing stance that China wants India to 'play a bigger role' in the international arena becomes a concession when it is a clear rebuff to the high Indian hopes of permanent membership of Security Council. All that makes one wonder whether the Indians suffer from a deep inferiority complex that they always have to look up to others, have to discover their failure in the patently wrong policies of other nations especially the mightier ones around and have to keep lauding others only to beat themselves and their endeavors good?