NEW DELHI: The Indian strategic establishment is up in arms against the agreement reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Gen Pervez Musharraf on setting up a joint anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations.

Former intelligence officials have wasted no time in coming out openly with a strong condemnation of the decision which is being widely interpreted here as being at the instance of the United States to bail out Gen Musharraf, under attack at home for the killing of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti and in the US for the “deal” with the Taliban, before his visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly.

Gen Musharraf had made this offer of joint cooperation on terrorism after the Mumbai serial blasts but the offer had been turned down by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had blamed the terror attack on Pakistan.

“We are certain that the terror modules responsible for the Mumbai blasts are instigated, inspired and supported by the elements across the border,” he had said.

In a direct reversal of this position, Dr Singh and foreign secretary-designate Shivshankar Menon claimed after the Havana meeting with Gen. Musharraf that Pakistan was also a victim of terrorism.

This has been the position taken by Gen. Musharraf and more recently by the United States, which has backed his claim that “terrorists are also trying to kill me.”

India had rejected this till the Havana meeting and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), in a statement on Tuesday, described the Prime Minister’s statement as “baffling.”

The Bhartiya Janata Party leaders, after a meeting at the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, issued a statement saying that “the distinction between the aggressor and the victim of aggression has been done away with.”

The union home ministry and the intelligence agencies have no idea of what the joint mechanism will entail.

Officials said the decision had been taken by the prime minister and they had no idea about the details.

Background briefings at Havana by officials accompanying the prime minister also did not shed any light on the details, which have clearly been discussed by back channels and at the hour-long meeting between the two leaders before the announcement was made.

Former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval and former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat B. Raman have both attacked the proposed mechanism, maintaining that the agreement has been a strategic victory for Pakistan.

Informed sources, who had been propagating peace between India and Pakistan when the NDA was in power, said that the agreement on joint terrorism was “absurd” as it effectively absolved Pakistan of all involvement in the terror attacks within India.

Dr Singh told reporters on his way back from Havana that Gen. Musharraf had assured him that “Pakistan has no hand” in the recent terror acts in India, but did not explain why he and national security adviser M.K. Narayanan had blamed the neighbouring country for the Mumbai blasts as well as the murder of the Indian worker in Afghanistan.

Significantly, Mr Shivshankar Menon said the investigations into the Mumbai blasts were still on and the evidence against Pakistan was not conclusive.

“The Government of India didn’t blame Pakistan, the government is still investigating the blasts. Our stance is that we need to tackle terrorism, whatever the sources,” he said. Dr Singh said after the Havana meeting: “Gen. Musharraf has assured me that Pakistan has no hand in perpetuating this. He did not go into the past. He said whatever has happened in the past, let’s work together in the future, and I believe this is the best that we could get in the circumstances.”

It was clear from these remarks that India had also agreed to let, what Gen. Musharraf later also said, “bygones be bygones.”

This has created considerable anger here, with the experts wondering at the complete somersault in policy.—By arrangement with The Asian Age