India’s National Security Advisor Shivshanker Menon came in for a rude shock during his recent visit to the United States of America when the new Barack Obama’s administration delivered a message to him during the course of his visit that India must pull back its troops from its borders with Pakistan. The U.S. administration also reportedly suggested that onus of peace in Afghanistan rested with India. not Pakistan.
According to the United States, this move was necessary to allow Pakistan to deploy more troops along volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It was a rude shock because it served to jolt Indian establishment out of its comfort zone following vastly improved ties with America. It was further bolstered when America under its new administration had gone out of way in supporting India in its diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, in the aftermath of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, to act against those perpetrating acts of terrorism from its soil targeting India.
The NSA’s response, as expected, was a measured one. Shivshankar Menon, as media reports suggest, made it clear to his American interlocutors that it was Pakistan which was first to build up massive troops along the India-Pakistan border, not India. But the Indian media went into overdrive and hyperbolized the matter, again as expected, as soon as they got the hint of this entire episode. The tone and pitch in media has been such that it could lead one to believe that the things have gone horrible wrong between India and the United stats; that America has shifted back to its overtly pro-Pak policies; that the Obama administration is turning back the clock of India-US relations. Each of these assumptions is like stretching our imagination too far. Instead, we must sit back, take a pause and think hard before making harried conclusions.
Indian establishment will do well to refrain from reacting in a way that could project India in bad light among the international community, which is extremely wary of deteriorating situation in Pakistan as the Taliban and numerous other terrorists groups there are virtually out of the State’s control. The Taliban has been steadily expanding areas under their control in Pakistan and coming closer and closer to our border. It is a nightmarish security scenario for India more than anyone else. Any obdurate position by India on the issue of pulling back our troops would be seen as India’s unwillingness to help America’s and international efforts to bring about peace and stability in the region. The time is not now to argue our case by who deployed the troops first, simply because it could boomerang on us. India will be in no position to explain what provoked Pakistan to deploy its troops along the India-Pakistan border. Because it really was the war hysteria launched and sustained by India following the horrific Mumbai attacks that prompted Pakistan to move its troops to its eastern borders. The time is also not now to point at Pakistan’s many backstabbing, like Kargil, in the past while posturing itself as sincerely engaging with India for improving bilateral relationship with India based on mutual trust and amity. Under the present scenario in Pakistan and Afghanistan, no such argument, howsoever justifiable, is going to cut ice with the International community.
We also must try to understand America’s position as well. President Obama is under immense pressure to deliver on his pre-poll promises and vision of “Change” and “Yes, we can” rhetoric. He is besieged with a host of domestic and international issues amidst his falling approval rate. The economy is also not showing even remote sign of recovering. Under such circumstances, his administration is under immense pressure to deliver at least on another issue which he had made his poll plank, which is winning America’s war on terror in Afghanistan. The problem is that America is no position to achieve any concrete results without the help of Pakistan army to fight insurgency along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. America needs the Pakistan’s army reinforcement near the Afghanistan border. Pakistan has expressed its helplessness to be able to do so in view of India’s heavy troop deployment there. It is quite deft but expected move from Pakistan given the realization that America in desperate need would pressure India to withdraw its troops. It also knows that America has extracted enough concessions from its army Chief Asfaq Kayani in the way he handled the recent political upheavals in Pakistan and it is now America’s turn to reciprocate, a kind of negotiated deal. These kinds of behind-the-scene negotiations and understandings are natural in international politics.
Given the above circumstances, India’s inflexibility with regard to moving its troops back will bring it no good. Besides, Pakistan will have to withdraw its troops as soon as India withdraws its own. America will ensure that. So on that count there is no concern. India has an opportunity on hand to get some concessions from America in return of doing what they have asked, just as, probably, Pakistan did. America must be expecting India to ask for return favors. They have already created some situations to give them tradable issues.
So, we should tell the American administration that, “yes, we can and we will withdraw,” but would appreciate if you could help us with the following:
A) Continue pressure on Pakistan until the probe into the Mumbai attacks comes to its logical end;
B) Impress upon Pakistan that it must dismantle terror infrastructure in Pakistan, including training camps that are active on its territory for plotting and executing terrorist strikes in India;
C) Assert to Pakistan firmly that it must ask its intelligence service to severe its links with certain terrorist groups to advance its designs against India;
D) Ask Pakistan to investigate recent reports of intercepts of communication originating from Pakistan indicating possibilities that some groups in Pakistan are plotting terrorist strikes in India to target top politicians during the run up to the general elections to create great upheavals in India; and
D) Lift freeze on GE from working on the two GE LM2500 gas turbine engines it supplied to power India’s first indigenous stealth frigate “Shivalik” and commit to not put similar roadblocks in the similar arrangement with the GE-supplied engines for the aircraft carrier being built by India.
Sounds Unfair? Well, international politics operate on one thumb rule – Give, and take.
According to the United States, this move was necessary to allow Pakistan to deploy more troops along volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It was a rude shock because it served to jolt Indian establishment out of its comfort zone following vastly improved ties with America. It was further bolstered when America under its new administration had gone out of way in supporting India in its diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, in the aftermath of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, to act against those perpetrating acts of terrorism from its soil targeting India.
The NSA’s response, as expected, was a measured one. Shivshankar Menon, as media reports suggest, made it clear to his American interlocutors that it was Pakistan which was first to build up massive troops along the India-Pakistan border, not India. But the Indian media went into overdrive and hyperbolized the matter, again as expected, as soon as they got the hint of this entire episode. The tone and pitch in media has been such that it could lead one to believe that the things have gone horrible wrong between India and the United stats; that America has shifted back to its overtly pro-Pak policies; that the Obama administration is turning back the clock of India-US relations. Each of these assumptions is like stretching our imagination too far. Instead, we must sit back, take a pause and think hard before making harried conclusions.
Indian establishment will do well to refrain from reacting in a way that could project India in bad light among the international community, which is extremely wary of deteriorating situation in Pakistan as the Taliban and numerous other terrorists groups there are virtually out of the State’s control. The Taliban has been steadily expanding areas under their control in Pakistan and coming closer and closer to our border. It is a nightmarish security scenario for India more than anyone else. Any obdurate position by India on the issue of pulling back our troops would be seen as India’s unwillingness to help America’s and international efforts to bring about peace and stability in the region. The time is not now to argue our case by who deployed the troops first, simply because it could boomerang on us. India will be in no position to explain what provoked Pakistan to deploy its troops along the India-Pakistan border. Because it really was the war hysteria launched and sustained by India following the horrific Mumbai attacks that prompted Pakistan to move its troops to its eastern borders. The time is also not now to point at Pakistan’s many backstabbing, like Kargil, in the past while posturing itself as sincerely engaging with India for improving bilateral relationship with India based on mutual trust and amity. Under the present scenario in Pakistan and Afghanistan, no such argument, howsoever justifiable, is going to cut ice with the International community.
We also must try to understand America’s position as well. President Obama is under immense pressure to deliver on his pre-poll promises and vision of “Change” and “Yes, we can” rhetoric. He is besieged with a host of domestic and international issues amidst his falling approval rate. The economy is also not showing even remote sign of recovering. Under such circumstances, his administration is under immense pressure to deliver at least on another issue which he had made his poll plank, which is winning America’s war on terror in Afghanistan. The problem is that America is no position to achieve any concrete results without the help of Pakistan army to fight insurgency along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. America needs the Pakistan’s army reinforcement near the Afghanistan border. Pakistan has expressed its helplessness to be able to do so in view of India’s heavy troop deployment there. It is quite deft but expected move from Pakistan given the realization that America in desperate need would pressure India to withdraw its troops. It also knows that America has extracted enough concessions from its army Chief Asfaq Kayani in the way he handled the recent political upheavals in Pakistan and it is now America’s turn to reciprocate, a kind of negotiated deal. These kinds of behind-the-scene negotiations and understandings are natural in international politics.
Given the above circumstances, India’s inflexibility with regard to moving its troops back will bring it no good. Besides, Pakistan will have to withdraw its troops as soon as India withdraws its own. America will ensure that. So on that count there is no concern. India has an opportunity on hand to get some concessions from America in return of doing what they have asked, just as, probably, Pakistan did. America must be expecting India to ask for return favors. They have already created some situations to give them tradable issues.
So, we should tell the American administration that, “yes, we can and we will withdraw,” but would appreciate if you could help us with the following:
A) Continue pressure on Pakistan until the probe into the Mumbai attacks comes to its logical end;
B) Impress upon Pakistan that it must dismantle terror infrastructure in Pakistan, including training camps that are active on its territory for plotting and executing terrorist strikes in India;
C) Assert to Pakistan firmly that it must ask its intelligence service to severe its links with certain terrorist groups to advance its designs against India;
D) Ask Pakistan to investigate recent reports of intercepts of communication originating from Pakistan indicating possibilities that some groups in Pakistan are plotting terrorist strikes in India to target top politicians during the run up to the general elections to create great upheavals in India; and
D) Lift freeze on GE from working on the two GE LM2500 gas turbine engines it supplied to power India’s first indigenous stealth frigate “Shivalik” and commit to not put similar roadblocks in the similar arrangement with the GE-supplied engines for the aircraft carrier being built by India.
Sounds Unfair? Well, international politics operate on one thumb rule – Give, and take.
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