Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 4, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/336210/Truth-eludes-the-PM.html
Hence his refusal to call Pakistan a terrorist
state
On the face of it, India's response to the
slaying of the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden, the man who
headed Al Qaeda and patronised a host of jihadi organisations, including the
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, cannot be faulted. Ever since the days of Khalistani violence,
India has been persistent in telling the world about perfidious Pakistan's
policy of aiding, abetting and promoting cross-border terrorism, but since
the West was not impacted, nobody bothered to take note of New Delhi's complaint.
It required something as devastating and hideous as 9/11 for the truth to
sink in, although even after that Western capitals, more so Washington, DC,
have demonstrated a perverse bias towards Islamabad. The huge military and
civilian aid doled out by America to Pakistan over the past decade bears testimony
to this strange blindness. It is ironical that the US should have finally
traced Osama bin Laden to his hideout not in the Tora Bora caves or the jihadi-infested
Afghanistan-Pakistan border region but right in the heart of Abbottabad, a
cantonment where life is monitored by the Army and no outsider can set up
home without the ISI's knowledge if not permission. No less revealing is the
fact that the specially constructed 'safe house' where Osama bin Laden was
found hiding was constructed in 2005, which suggests he may have been living
there for the past six years. So much for Pakistan's commitment towards fighting
terrorism and America's anointment of a terror-sponsoring state as its 'frontline
ally'. Monday's outburst of anger on Capitol Hill is understandable, but members
of both the Congress and the Senate have only themselves to blame for believing
the fiction peddled by Islamabad and being persuaded by Pakistani President
Asif Ali Zardari's ghost-written opeditorials in The Washington Posti proclaiming
his country's innocence. It's a richly deserved comeuppance for the Americans.
But how do we explain our Prime Minister's
astonishing refusal to speak the truth despite his senior Cabinet colleagues,
the Minister for External Affairs and the Minister for Home Affairs, pointing
out the obvious - that Pakistan now stands stripped of the fig leaf that it
has clutched on to so desperately all these years while refuting charges of
harbouring terrorists and sponsoring terrorism - and instead play down the
complicit role of the Pakistani state? Osama bin Laden may have been a 'non-state
actor', but those who provided him with shelter and looked after him all these
years are very much a part of the Pakistani state; so are those who treat
the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed as 'assets' and refuse to act
against these terrorist organisations despite overwhelming evidence against
them. The US, while plotting and executing the raid on Abbottabad to neutralise
Osama bin Laden was taking care of its national interest, as it should. But
what about India's national interest? Taking care of that is the mandate of
the Government of India which, tragically, is headed by a person who cannot
bring himself to separate his personal predilection from the affairs of state.
Mr Manmohan Singh is welcome to his views on the need to pander to Pakistan
and paint the perpetrator of repeated terrorist attacks on India as the victim,
but he should desist from forcing that as foreign policy on the nation. For
justice still eludes those killed by Pakistan's terrorists in India.
