NEW DELHI, Oct 11: After weeks of sulking at being perhaps unfairly left out of the main focus of anti-terrorist action, India finally acknowledged on Thursday that the war against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was of direct benefit to New Delhi’s national interests.
But even in acknowledging the gain from the war, being launched from Pakistani soil and Pakistani air space and with Pakistan’s material resources at considerable risk to its national and social cohesion, there was no sign of a kind word from New Delhi, much less a straight response to an invitation from Islamabad for either the Indian prime minister or the foreign minister to visit the country to make a new beginning in their uneasy bilateral relations.
Going by a briefing by Minister of External Affairs and Defence Jaswant Singh, India plans to continue to target Islamabad for its alleged acts of omission or commission in Jammu and Kashmir, a condition that did not apply when it suited New Delhi to find the “objective conditions” right to stage the Agra summit in July.
“The neutralization of Afghanistan as a terrorist base is of direct benefit to India’s national interests,” Singh told a daily briefing usually addressed by his spokesperson. He explained that this was “because most of the training camps that were earlier located nearer Jammu and Kashmir were moved into Afghanistan.”
It was not clear when the “bases” were moved and if any stiff action by Pakistan was behind the move.
Indian officials often accuse Pakistan of helping terrorist action not only in Kashmir but in almost any other region of the subcontinent where armed violence erupts. The last major attack by a suicide bomber killed more than 29 civilians on Oct 1, outside the Srinagar-based state legislature of Kashmir. President Pervez Musharraf condemned the attack, which India blames on the Jaish-i-Mohammed group.
Singh said India was working with the international community to join the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan with which New Delhi had old cultural and political links. According to India’s intelligence, former King Zahir Shah was not interested in reviving the monarchy in Afghanistan, Singh said. New Delhi would therefore work for an interim regime which would be multi-ethnic, but one which did not have any Taliban elements in it.
Singh questioned Afghan leader Burhanuddin Rabbani’s view that the new dispensation could include moderate Taliban elements, saying “moderate Taliban is an oxymoron”.
He said: “The neutralization, the converting of Afghanistan of today to a country that rejoins the international community (will be) of direct benefit to India’s national interest.”
Singh promised to help as much as he could to enable Indian journalists to cover the war from Pakistan, but not before chiding them for petitioning him for the help with Islamabad which has denied them visas. “I should have expected to be grilled, not petitioned by you,” he told some of the Indian journalists who pleaded with him for help.
Concerned about India’s sensitivities on Kashmir, the United States too has clarified that it recognises the problem of terrorism in Kashmir but feels that a “calendar” cannot be set for tackling the menace.
Washington has also ruled out becoming a mediator between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, which will be discussed with Indian leadership by Secretary of State Colin Powell during his visit to India.
“Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is exactly the kind of terrorism that must be condemned and must be rooted out. War against terrorism must include terrorism against India,” said US Ambassador Sir Robert D Blackwill.
The envoy also spoke about the “quantum advance” in Indo-US relations, especially after the September 11 terrorist strikes in the US.
Citing the speeches made by President George W Bush and Powell, Blackwill was quoted by an Indian news channel as saying: “There are no exceptions with respect to countries that harbour terrorism. There are no exceptions to terrorism, as it exists in camps funded, trained and so forth. We will accept no nation that harbours terrorism.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee hinted on Thursday that there could be increased military action to flush out militants in Kashmir.