Despite Pune bomb blast having caught us napping again, India continues to play chess with Pakistan. 

By Sunita Vakil 

Hope, as they say, is a pathological belief in the occurrence of the impossible. The same can be said of India-Pakistan relations which are caught in the cusp between hope and despair. The decision to press ahead with the Indo-Pak talks even after the dastardly attack in Pune has once again led to the soaring of expectations on both sides of the border. Despite extreme provocation, the Centre has held firm when it comes to continuing talks proving India’s compulsive fascination for a dialogue whose outcome is hopelessly predictable. For over six decades, India has shown patience in dealing with Pakistan, hoping for reciprocatory. But noises coming from across the border have never suggested that Islamabad sincerely wants peace between the two neighbours. With Pakistan rudely mocking India’s security concerns, it surely is a case of misplaced optimism for India to establish good relations with the former. One wonders what is being achieved by such a meaningless, futile exercise when innocent Indians are being sacrificed?

      Regrettably, terrorism is raising its head at periodic intervals reminding us that it is here to stay and had never gone anywhere. Indeed, the Pune bombings did not actually come as a surprise especially when a number of terrorist outfits had recently met in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, reaffirming their commitment to  
”Jehad”. It has been a year since the terror attacks on Mumbai stunned India as well as the whole world. The Pune bomb blast which claimed nine lives and injured over 50 people is once again a reminder that the threat of terrorism still looms large over the nation. The attack is a testimony to the fact that Pakistan sponsored terrorism continues to pose a great threat to India. And yet, we do not seem to have learnt any lessons from 26/11. The government’s responses have been far from reassuring. The painful fact is that our inept leadership is clueless about what steps to take next to deal with another terrorist blitzkrieg.

      By relentlessly backing engagement with Pakistan despite repeated terror attacks, the PM Manmohan Singh chose to take a more nuanced view to signal that his regime is keen to appease Islamabad even at the cost of ignoring India’s interests. Despite the fact that his drumbeaters continue to slam BJP for extending the hand of friendship notwithstanding Kargil, Kandahar and Parliament attacks, the UPA government has sent the worst signal to Pakistan that no matter how many times Islamabad stabs us in the back, it will be business as usual with the terror sponsoring country.

      However, this is not the first time that India has capitulated to Pakistan in such a shameful manner. It was, in the first place, crazy to regard India and Pakistan as equal victims of Jehadi terrorism and set up a joint anti-terror mechanism. Till date, our Islamic neighbour has never acted on our evidence against criminals like Dawood Ibraham and others. This was followed by the surrender at Sharam-el-Sheikh. Now, in keeping with its bizzare policy of resuming dialogue at any cost, the congress led UPA government did not desist from pleading with the terror exporting state to go ahead with the talks. Is it any wonder then that Pakistan is crying itself hoarse that it is indeed India which has been forced to bend? Naturally, the message that has gone out is that India always comes around. Even the trial of Azmal Kasab, the lone terrorist caught alive during the Mumbai attack, is still dragging on despite all the evidence. Our government has not initiated any procedure to punish him. On the other hand, it has spent huge amount of money on conducting his trial and keeping him hale and hearty. Terror attacks, meanwhile, continue with alarming regularity. Given Pakistan’s rejection of several volumes of proof that India provided concerning 26/11, it will not serve any purpose to identify the perpetrators of the German bakery blast. In which case, what can India do other than condemn the group or the country that hosts it?

      The German bakery attack in Pune carries a stark message: the security forces have to remain vigilant as the terrorists have proved that they can still strike at will. As Mr Chidambaram announced that the government would take aggressive action in case of another attack, one can only hope that instead of wasting time and effort talking to Pakistan, the government undertakes result oriented action. The terrorist infrastructure on the other side of the border has not yet been dismantled. Nor has Pakistan provided any proof  of having scrapped its policy of using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s statement that his country is willing to share intelligence with India to thwart Pune like attacks, can be taken with a pinch of salt. For, if there was even an iota of sincerity in such statements, Islamabad should have shut down terrorist camps operating from its soil by now. It needs no reiteration that the neighbouring country has been always high on rhetoric and low on action. Therefore it would be a fatal miscalculation to trust Pakistan and bank on it to improve relations with India.

      It goes without saying that acts of terror like the recent one have become routine in India with our reactions following predictable patterns. After the initial flurry of activity, there  a constant buzz of pronouncements which range from military threats to Pakistan to intelligence failure to the usual guesswork. After every attack the PM condemns it, opposition starts the blame game and victims are provided ex-gratead. There are also promises to spruce up the intelligence agencies to prevent such attacks in future. We also witness a spate of useless naka-bandis, spot checks etc. as a knee jerk reaction. Soon, the incident is forgotten till the next blast jolts us back to reality.

      Having said that, Pune blast has exposed failures at all levels. It has invariably laid bare the lack of preparation as well as chinks in the country’s intelligence network. Our security agencies do not seem to have learnt any valuable lessons from 26/11. It is very unfortunate that despite intelligence inputs indicating an attack on Pune by Jehadis, the blast took place. This clearly signifies that we need to bring about a radical improvement in our intelligence services. Also, there has to be a proper coordination between central and state security agencies so that such tragedies are never repeated. The almost indefinite trial of terrorists and failure to punish guilty have wrought havoc with the country. The natural outcome of such a flawed process is that criminals are ruling the roost. There is an urgent need to fix a time frame for completing the cases of terrorism.

      Due to our lax attitude to security and frequent intelligence failure, we have become soft targets for terrorists. It was indeed perplexing to hear a Maharashtra Cabinet Minister  State that they received intelligence inputs but they were not specific or actionable. One wonders when will our leaders understand that intelligence is always vague and needs to be filtered to make it more specific. The Government, instead of being in a defensive mode, needs to seriously revisit its policy towards Pakistan and the terrorism sponsored by it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

      Adding a new twist to UPA’s limp-wristed approach to dealing with Pakistan, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Home Minister P.Chidambaram are making every effort to facilitate the return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri youth from Pakistan. It is unfortunate that they have not factored in the long term implications of such a move at a time when the country is facing a serious threat of terrorism. All political parties should realize that their divisive politics is giving terrorists ample space to execute their evil agendas. It is high time politicians of all shades stop distracting the Government’s attention with their antics as such issues put a strain on our security apparatus and personnel. The need of the hour is for all parties to unite and formulate a foolproof security policy to prevent terror attacks in future. The PM has to be applauded for calling the Chief Minister’s conference on internal security so that a consensus exists to defeat the challenges of terrorism.   

The author is a Delhi based journalist and can be reached at sampost@nda.vsnl.net.in