on the spot
Tavleen Singh
There was something beyond ironic in the way that Pakistan’s beauteous Foreign Minister advised India, with a perfectly straight face to stop being ‘a hostage to history’. The sense of satire was heightened, for me personally, when I noticed that she made this remark in the week of the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. It sort of proves that either Ms Hina Rabbani Khar has no sense of history or no sense of irony. Her injunction to India to stop being ‘hostage to history’ came in Islamabad in the presence of our Minister for External Affairs. His response was to give her an avuncular smile and then tell Indian television journalists that he had an assurance that Pakistan would be punishing the men responsible for 26/11. He appeared not to notice that this is an empty assurance that Islamabad has given many times in the past four years. Nor did he notice that from the vantage point of Mumbai, where I happen to be, he looked very much like a man who let India down by not taking Ms Khar on at least enough to shame her a little.
Ms. Khar with her pearls and veils and Hermes bags is not just a pretty face. She totally dominated the agenda in the recent talks the foreign ministers held. In her interviews to Indian television channels she went out of her way to emphasize that she had expressed ‘all Pakistan’s concerns’ in her meetings with her Indian counterpart. Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek she added by way of explaining what these concerns were. There was no mention of cross-border terrorism except in the advice that India should stop being a ‘hostage to history’.
It should have been the job of the Indian foreign minister to remind her that the reason why India finds it hard to forget history is because there is no sign yet that Pakistan has changed its ways since the 26/11 attack. Why did he say nothing? Why did he not publicly remind Ms Khar that Hafiz Sayeed and the Lashkar-e-Toiba continue to function openly in Pakistan and this can hardly give India reason to forget about the attack on Mumbai. It makes it even harder for India to stop being a ‘hostage to history’ if you keep in mind that thanks to the Americans and the revelations of David Headley we now know for sure that 26/11 was planned and executed by the ISI. This makes it an act of war and not just another act of terrorism. And, we still do not know from Pakistan’s civilian, democratic government the names of the army officers who were in the Karachi control room throughout the attack guiding Ajmal Kasab and his comrades every step of the way. We know from Abu Jundal that there were army officers in that control room. Who were they? Will they be court martialled for what they did?
The military men who are Pakistan’s real rulers, and certainly the men who make that country’s foreign policy, have shown not the smallest sign that they have abandoned ‘jihad’ as the fundamental principle of their foreign policy in South Asia. In Afghanistan the Taliban fighters would not be able to take on the army of the most powerful country in the world if it were not for the assistance of the Pakistani army. Would they? And, in India jihadi groups, that have clear links to the ISI, continue to be behind every major act of terrorism since 26/11. Do they not?
If further proof were needed that the ISI has not changed its attitude to foreign policy we need only examine what happened to the doctor who helped the Americans kill Osama bin Laden. Instead of being rewarded for helping catch the world’s most wanted terrorist Shakeel Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in jail on May 24 this year. How fast Pakistan’s justice system works when it wants to punish its enemies! Last week in an interview from his jail cell in Peshawar Dr. Afridi told Fox News that the ISI now thinks of the Americans as Pakistan’s biggest enemy, ‘worse than the Indians’. Should this cheer us up? Not really if you listen to what else Dr. Afridi said in his interview. Here is a small extract, ‘It is now indisputable that militancy in Pakistan is supported by the ISI…Pakistan’s fight against militancy is bogus. Its just to extract money from America.’
So forgive me Ms Khar if I ask you on whose behalf you speak when you ask India to stop being a hostage to history? Do you have the right to speak on behalf of the very weak civilian government that you represent or do you take your orders from the military men who make Pakistan’s foreign policy? And, speaking of military men it is worth remembering that not so very long ago General Pervez Musharraf gave an interview to a British television channel in which he said India was Pakistan’s biggest enemy because it posed an ‘existential threat’ to that country. General Musharraf till just the other day, please remember, was Pakistan’s ruler.
So before you talk about history again Ms Khar you would do well to take a few history lessons. You might find it easier to understand why you need to be very careful when you go around advising countries to stop being ‘hostage to history’. If only, ah if only, we had heard our foreign minister say something along these lines when he was in Islamabad. Not only would it have been reassuring for someone like me who remembers 26/11 every time I walk past VT station, and every time I walk into the Oberoi or the Taj, but it would have shown that India was making her case from a position of strength. As things turned out Shri S.M. Krishna came back from Islamabad empty-handed and looking even more like a loser than he usually does.
As for Ms Khar she, as usual, ended up making Pakistan look good. What is it about her that reduces even hardboiled Indian television anchors to such sniveling sycophants that they ask only soft questions? It cannot be her sense of history or even her sensitivity to history. So it must be her looks or her Birken handbags that cause such excitement every time she comes to India. Each one costs more than a middle class Indian or Pakistani earns in a year. Ah, but that is another story altogether.
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