PUT a simple question to General Musharraf: what new thing has his Delhi visit achieved which wasn’t there before? Has he brought back the outlines of a Kashmir settlement? If so, the nation should be informed. Did he return with tidings of Indian flexibility on Siachen or the Baglihar dam? Not that anyone can tell. His PTV interview, far from clearing the air, has fed more doubts. Long on hype, it was short on substance.
So beyond photo-ops and general bonhomie, what was the purpose of the Delhi trip? Friendship is already in the air. While this should be taken further, for this you don’t need a Pakistani head of state going to Delhi, at his own invitation no less, when he is not very clear in his mind what he is hoping to achieve.
Peace with India, yes, by all means. War has brought nothing but harm to both countries, perhaps more to Pakistan, we being the smaller country. But after the permafrost has come the thaw and relations are looking up. Links are expanding and there is more movement across the border although heaven knows we could do with a lot more.
But serious issues — Kashmir, differing interpretations over the Baglihar dam, the senseless standoff in Siachen, etc — also remain. And when top leaders meet it is reasonable to expect serious discussions leading, hopefully, to some kind of progress. And in the absence of progress a frank statement that, well, we tried but there was no forward movement and let’s hope we do better next time.
What are we being served with instead? Hype and euphoria underpinned by little or no progress on basic issues. While the people of Pakistan would appreciate a little candour, what they are being treated to is spin on a grand scale, the president in the forefront with his declaration that his visit was successful “beyond expectations”.
Insulting the intelligence of the people is a time-worn Pakistani tradition followed faithfully by every caudillo/ruler worth his salt. But this is taking the tradition to new heights, almost making a religion of it. If the visit was really successful “beyond expectations”, why aren’t the people of Pakistan being let into the secret?
No doubt ,Pakistan is playing on a difficult pitch. The status quo or occupying power as far as Kashmir, Baglihar dam and Siachen are concerned is India. To break or finetune the status quo, flexibility, by definition, has to come from India. Pakistan for its part has dismantled the infrastructure of terrorism/the-freedom-struggle. (If it hadn’t delivered on this count, Musharraf would have been greeted with scowls not smiles.) But how precisely has India responded? The people of Pakistan would be grateful for specific answers. They are getting none from their president.
As the status quo power, it is in India’s interest to keep Pakistan lulled by empty gestures of goodwill. But here we are seeing a strange thing happening. It is not India overdoing the flashing smiles and warm bear hugs but Pakistan. It is Gen Musharraf who goes on a charm offensive and succeeds so brilliantly that today he is the most popular Pakistani in India. Any opinion poll would attest to this. All the same, cutting through the hype the tangible results remain unknown.
Asked on TV as to what had been “beyond expectations”, Musharraf was reduced to saying that the sincerity of the Indian leadership in looking for a solution to the Kashmir dispute was beyond expectations. Moving away from belligerence is one thing, descending to such frivolity quite another.
India is not frivolous with us nor India and China with each other. I was part of the Editors’ Guild crowd invited for a question-answer session with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and it was hard not to notice that every word he uttered was carefully chosen, even his smiles carefully rationed. Saying that I was from Chakwal, I cracked a limp joke about his village, Gah, saying that while I had won an election from that constituency, I had lost from Gah and would he be so kind as to put in a word for me if I chose to stand again.
The luminaries gathered there laughed but not this son of Gah. Not even the flicker or ghost of a smile which I found a bit unnerving. In fact, the three of us from Pakistan who were there — Najam Sethi, Hameed Haroon and I — did a collective Musharraf by not asking any difficult questions, perhaps out of unconscious deference to the spirit of conciliation in the air.
But unless my hangover was severer than I think (the previous evening having been a somewhat turbulent affair), I don’t remember Manmohan Singh being too effusive in his answers. He kept to his script which I suppose comes from his training as an economist. Why should Pakistan or its leadership be under the illusion that this same training will make him behave differently — say, deviate from India’s consensual script — when it comes to dealing with Pakistan?
Manmohan Singh is doing the right thing by his country which is his bounden duty. We should do the right thing by ours which means work for peace by testing the waters, gauging India’s intentions and only giving concessions when some concessions are forthcoming from the other side. This is a not a recipe for belligerence, only for the caution and circumspection that all states exercise, or are supposed to, in the international arena.
The question then is one of emphasis not substance. In my column last week I slipped into hyperbole by bandying about such words as Munich and capitulation which were way off the mark. For this, I deserve sackcloth and ashes. Heavy-duty words should be reserved for heavy-duty subjects. Delhi was the scene of no capitulation. But Musharraf’s blithe reference to “porous borders” without a word about the UN resolutions was music to Indian ears. That’s why the Indian media was bowled over, treating the visit less as diplomatic event, more as some kind of rock concert.
To give but one example, editor Vinod Mehta in Outlook, a respected magazine, writing a breathless account of Musharraf’s sartorial elegance. For all their sins, not many Pakistani journalists would be caught waxing poetic about the cut of Musharraf’s suits. India is welcome to Musharraf-mania. The dominant feeling in Pakistan is the fatigue that comes from having too much of a good thing for too long.
While there is no doubt everyone in India loved the sound-and-light show staged in Delhi, it leaves many Pakistanis wondering what there was in it for Pakistan. With nothing tangible to report the spin masters have a tough job on their hands.
To state the obvious, peace is the only option between India and Pakistan, but one based on mutual trust and shared advantages. Overdoing the bonhomie bit is counter-productive, for it sets the stage for gripes and surliness later on, especially if the feel-good mood is not matched by solid progress on Kashmir, Baglihar and Siachen, the triad of contention casting a shadow on the new-found love between India and Pakistan.
Meanwhile spare a thought for the people of Pakistan who are in the sixth year of being schooled in the nuances of Mush-speak. When they hear how Pakistan has been made safe for democracy or why it is necessary for Musharraf to remain army chief forever, their honed reaction is to reach for the salt cellar. It is too much to expect they’ll suddenly become believers, shedding all scepticism, when tinsel is passed off for substance in the matter of his Delhi trip.