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For the US Pak is as important as India

Amberish K Diwanji in Delhi

Is India really serious about ensuring that Pakistan is declared a terrorist state? The way in which New Delhi is going about the entire business, it appears very doubtful.

The Indian government has claimed it has both direct and circumstantial evidence of Islamabad's involvement in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines Flight 814. Reports have also come in that the terrorists who were released in exchange for the 156 hostages, are apparently in Pakistan. One of them, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar is reportedly in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

India has used this among the other evidence that it has collected and asked the United States to declare Pakistan a terrorist state. And while several Congressmen sympathetic to India have backed the demand, the US administration has refused to accede to it.

The US had earlier declared Libya and Iran as terrorist states. After these declarations, economic sanctions were applied, and most countries across the globe fell in line. It would appear that India has the same aim in mind, hoping that with economic sanctions put in place against Pakistan, the regime in Islamabad will become more compliant and curb the terrorists who operate out of Pakistan.

Yet, diplomatic sources and observers are hardly surprised that the US administration turned down New Delhi's request almost as soon as it was made. "The US has too much at stake in Pakistan," said sources in the ministry of external affairs, "and it is extremely unlikely that they will ever declare Pakistan a terrorist state anywhere in the foreseeable future."

According to the sources, the US believes that if Pakistan is pushed into an isolated corner, the fundamentalist elements will take over, an event that could spell even more trouble than at present. "The US really feels that the present lot is far better. Hence even after the army took over, the US was unwilling to cut off ties," the sources added.

Also, the US establishment has long and deep links with the Pakistan establishment which have been forged over the years. "Every Pakistani military or civil officer, invariably spends time in the US for training. During such training, he makes friends with his counterparts in the US, many of who then rise to top levels together. So much so that today, any high level government official in Pakistan can pick up the telephone and talk to a senior US official simply because they trained together some years earlier. These friendships do play a role when we seek to have Pakistan declared a terrorist state," said the sources.

India has been after the US to declare Pakistan a terrorist state for quite some time now, so much so that the means is seen as an end in itself. The Indian establishment believes that given both US and Indian concern about rising Islamic fundamentalism and global terrorism, it is but natural for these two democracies to join hands and take on Pakistan, seen as the source exporting terrorism across the globe. The US reluctance appears rather galling to Indians.

As the sources pointed out, the highly improved Indo-US ties are but a recent phenomenon. "The mistake the Indian government and media makes is that we think just because India's relation with the US is improving, their relation with Pakistan is on the downslide. That is simply not true. The US relation with Pakistan is independent of its relation with India, and Washington DC will not jeopardise its ties with Islamabad just for New Delhi's sake," the sources added.

When the ministry of external affairs spokesman was asked the Indian response to the US rejection to declaring Pakistan a terrorist state, he replied, "The subject of a terrorist state is part of the ongoing Indo-US dialogue."

Yet, even from the Indian perspective, there are weaknesses in declaring Pakistan a terrorist state. It should be remembered that much before the US declared Libya and Iran as terrorist states, Washington DC had cut off all diplomatic and economic ties with these two countries. On the other hand, not only does New Delhi have full diplomatic relations with Islamabad, one of its stated objectives is to improve its ties with Pakistan.

"It is really stupid to seek a terrorist tag for Pakistan from the US while we maintain cordial relations," a diplomatic observer pointed out, adding, "for instance, why can't we downgrade the diplomatic status in Islamabad. Surely it is possible to appoint a low ranking official as the charge d'affaires rather than keep a full fledged high commissioner."

The diplomatic sources too agreed that keeping full diplomatic relations with Pakistan while demanding that it be declared a terrorist state did send out contradictory signals.

One observers added that the demand to declare Pakistan a terrorist state seemed to have been made more out of domestic compulsions rather than diplomatic reasons. "Even Home Minister L K Advani has said that releasing the terrorists for the hostages has hurt the image of the Bharatiya Janata Party. All this tough posturing appears aimed at mollifying the domestic lobby that is upset with the BJP for caving in to the terrorists and thus appearing no different from the Congress and United Front governments," he said.

India has provided abundant evidence to the world about Pakistan's complicity in various terrorist activities. Sources point out that Libya and Iran were declared terrorists states with far less evidence than what New Delhi has shown to the world.

Hence, to get the US to declare Pakistan a terrorist state, New Delhi will have to take the first hard steps.

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