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The Nobel quest

Since the dawn of Su-Raj, Prime Minister Vajpayee has considerably raised the influence of India abroad: the EU has supported India's move in the UN for a convention on international terrorism; Portugal, Russia and Israel have agreed to cooperate at a multilateral level to combat terrorism; Italy, Britain, France and Turkmenistan have shared our concern about terrorism; and the US and India have agreed on a joint committee to fight the menace. I'm very pleased. But I've a question: What kind of cooperation is the Indian government expecting from the countries willing to combat terrorism along with it? Does it want a peacekeeping force in Anantnag? The marines, perhaps...? India has campaigned relentlessly against Pakistan's role in the sponsoring of terrorism in Kashmir. But, has Pakistan been declared a terrorist state by any nation? Nada. Instead, Britain and France have resumed arms sales to Pakistan.

Fact is, the Vajpayee government has only been indulging in diplomatic posturing. That it continuously raises the terrorism issue at the diplomatic level, indicates its acknowledgement of its failure in quashing separatist violence at home. Instead of impressing upon the global community our concern about terrorism, all that we've accomplished is to introduce new levels of hype and inflated rhetoric about our diplomatic "success."

I hang my head in shame that I did not see this coming during Kargil. Then, India was well within its rights to strike at Pakistan. Sure, Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the use of force in international disputes. However, exceptions to that prohibition include "acts of self-defence," "acts of collective self-defence" and, most significantly, "actions to terminate trespass." Even so, India only defended. Leave alone reclaiming PoK, we didn't even foray to destroy one of its (known) 70 terrorist camps or blast the supply routes which sustained the Pakis in Kargil. We lost 470 Indian Army personnel -- but, how many have we lost since then...?

I finally woke up you know when. India has the dubious honour of recording the highest percentage of hijackings attributed to terrorism sponsored by an external power. Seven of the 13 hijackings were by ISI-trained groups, beginning with the January 1971 hijacking by JKLF militants, who then blew up the Indian Airlines plane at Lahore with explosives provided by the ISI. The five hijackings in the '80s were all by Khalistanis backed by the ISI. And then there was the hijacking in December, when Harkat-ul-Mujahideen demanded the release of jailed terrorists. All these occurred when the military was in power in Pakistan -- five under Zia-ul-Haq and one each under Yahya Khan and Parvez Musharraf.

My morale's been downhill since then. Within a month, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar -- one of the three murderers freed to secure the Nobel Peace Prize for Mahatma Vajpayee -- returned to Kashmir for further sport. In July, Mast Gul, who had escaped from Chrar-e-Sharif in 1995 under the auspices of another literatus PM, returned to the Valley after joining Al-Umar, the outfit which came to the fore when Zargar was swapped at Kandahar. Mast Gul's announcement to return to jihad came two days after a similar one made by Master Ahsun Dar, who, as chief commander of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, was arrested in 1993. After he was released in September, Dar re-launched Ansar-ul-Islam, the group he'd merged with the Hizb. Meanwhile, Masood Azhar set up the Jaish-e-Mohammad Mujahideen-e-Tanzeem, recruited at least 5,000 Pakis, and united various militant groups. It's this outfit that claimed credit for the first ever suicide bomb attack in J&K when a fidayeen rammed a car laden with explosives into the gates of the Army HQ in Badami Bagh on April 23. On Sunday, we learnt that Jaish is forming five-member cells, patterned after Lashkar's fidayeens, for rapid hit-and-run attacks.

Following are statistics of civilians and security personnel killed by insurgents in J&K since 1990; they don't include losses at the LC or during Kargil. Also, the figure for August is what I gleaned from reports so far:

Year	Civilians	Security Forces	Total Killed
1990	862	132	994
1991	594	185	779
1992	859	177	1036
1993	1023	216	1239
1994	1028	220	1248
1995	1200	258	1458
1996	1468	241	1709
1997	992	203	1195
1998	982	237	1219
1999	821	356	1177
2000 estimated	849

Month, 2000	Civilians	Security Forces	Total
January	55	26	81
February	72	30	102
March	72	26	98
April to July 27	302	161	463
To August 3	105

When such are the fatalities perpetuated by terrorists; when intelligence reports had warned that extremists could step up violence; when it's known that the Amarnath Yatra is a soft target; when experience tells us that 15 August is a red flag to Pakis - which government in the world would have ordered the Army to implement a ceasefire in Kashmir at this juncture...? I'm at a loss for words! What the f*** is a "unilateral ceasefire"?! On July 29, under instructions from the Saintly Executive, the GOC 15 Corps announced the suspension of all operations against the Hizb. The very next day, 7 soldiers were killed and 6 wounded when militants targeted an Army transit camp outside Bandipore.

WHAT were the modalities of enforcing this ceasefire? Do Hizb cadres stroll around with boards around their necks screaming I AM A HIZB PIG? Or did the Mahatma believe they would drop their salwars and adopt the dhoti? What about the cordon-and-search ops? What, exactly, was the Indian soldier expected to do -- if not drop his guard...? Doesn't anybody realise that such half-assed situations would only short-circuit the national killing machine?! And this, I believe, is the precise aim of the terrorists and their mentor who must now be grinning away in Islamabad.

At last count, the meeting between Hizb commanders and Army officers failed to take place since two of the four Hizb dorks were "not available." To top that, the Hizb asserted that its cadres would retain weapons "for safety and security." It alleged "harassment of cadres" by the security forces. It claimed that the J&K police indulged in "excesses" against the relatives of Hizb terrorists who were being "pressured" by the security forces to surrender. It fumed that militant Shabbir Ahmad Jaanbaaz was killed by the Army. And all this after Mushtaq Ahmed Geelani's statement -- faxed two days before the horror that killed at least a hundred people in a series of 8 cold-blooded massacres carried out over 12 hours -- that there must be "an immediate and complete cessation of military and paramilitary actions in the Kashmir Valley." Doesn't this "nationalist" government have any respect for the men in uniform who've been falling like nine pins?!

No, I'm not saying that there should be no parley with terrorist orgs. Hey, talk all you want! But, in too quick a succession, we have had: the offer of talks with the Hurriyat; Farooq Abdullah's autonomy resolution; the Hizb's ceasefire. Nope, I don't believe in political coincidences. Both, Hurriyat and Hizb, claim that the government has accepted "unconditional" talks. And the Mahatma says, "Leave the Constitution. Talks should be held within human limits so that violence is stopped and no more blood is shed." Saleem Hashmi says, "We won't accept any conditions which say that talks should be within the ambit of the Indian Constitution or without involving Pakistan." And the Mahatma merely says, "I don't see any possibility of talks with Pakistan." "Possibility"...? What aren't we being told...?

Now one learns that two NGOs -- both blacklisted by the MEA for receiving foreign funds from dubious sources -- financed the visit of five former diplomats to Pakistan to connect with the military regime after the PM's security advisor, Brajesh Mishra, endorsed it. This, of course, is the Mahatma's brand of Track II diplomacy -- that which had screwed the December hijacking. Therefore, one of the diplomat's statement to The Dawn shouldn't surprise you at all: "There is a realisation that Pakistan will have to be consulted while resolving the Kashmir dispute."

Folks, if all goes according to the Mahatma's plans, at the very least, we will see the Kashmir issue internationalised and Pakistan given a back-door entry to dialogue over J&K. Gen Musharraf is a dangerous man: There's no way that Abdul Majid Dar, who announced the Hizb ceasefire, could have left PoK without a nod from the General. Historically, Pakistan has always broken agreements with India, whether it be the Simla Accord, the Lahore Declaration or the aggressions from 1947 to 1999; even a retard won't swallow that Pakistan will stand aside and permit peace in Kashmir. Besides, Musharraf is the man who declared, "These people are not terrorists. They are fighting a jehad."

That Dar flew from Dubai to Delhi before leaving for Srinagar without being halted en route by Indian authorities, indicates that he was expected. The government's quick directive to the security forces not to engage Hizb cadres, shows that the PM had made up his mind. The Track II diplomacy and the fact that separatists who sneer, "We are a fighting force and it is not our task to engage in negotiations" are being entertained, signifies that the Mahatma is getting ready to dump the Special Resolution on Kashmir of 1994, which affirms that the territorial integrity of Kashmir is non-negotiable. For only the scrapping of the resolution would lend the "flexibility" desired by Pakistan and its jehadis.

These are the thoughts of a dear friend, an officer of the Indian Army: "It's time we realized that there is no need for a strong nation like ours to clutch at every straw and jump at every sign in a reactive manner. It cannot be anyone's case that opportunities for peace are lost, but we must not walk into another Kargil. The onus of proving -- and not merely stating -- its intentions lies squarely with Hizb. It is time they were put to the word. Till that happens, we must redouble our military action in the Valley and push the militants to the wall."

And these are mine: Some analysts have warned that the Indian government should be wary of walking into a trap. I totally reject that. I believe that it is the people of India who have already walked into one: The most dangerous feature for the security of this country is Mahatma Vajpayee's eagerness to be perceived as a man of peace. Nothing stops him from his grand quest for the Nobel -- not even the diminishing of the territorial integrity of India.

Varsha Bhosle