INDIA’S SOFT DIPLOMACY

                                                                                                           

Little wonder that Pakistan though a smaller country than India ends up with a distinctive advantage on each occasion it engages India in a dialogue or exchanges of diplomatic pleasantries. Unfortunately India’s Gandhigiri kinds of diplomacy like, if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, has been its underbelly in any engagement with Pakistan or for that matter with China. This may perhaps explain Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s faux pas, which the opposition leaders would like to call selective amnesia, in describing his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani “a Man of Peace” on the sidelines Saarc summit that has been just concluded in Maldives.  Of course this generous epithet from the soft spoken Prime Minister of India to Prime Minister Gilani of Pakistan, which pursues an agenda of harassing India on each front – diplomacy, exports of terror and counterfeit currency notes – did not go unreciprocated.  On Pakistan’s part its interior minister Rehman Malik has consoled India with a quid pro quo delivery on the soft pitch of India’s diplomacy. Malik has said at the same time that Ajmal Kasab was a terrorist and included in Pakistan’s wish list that Kasab be hanged. Malik’s statement however must be taken with a pinch of salt. Apart from the fact that it not only interferes with the judicial process in another sovereign country it also is an incitement to human rights violation.

Hypocrisy

It may be recalled so long the Govt. of Pakistan has been in the denial mode. It did not admit that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani citizen till 2009. Obviously Pakistani Govt. now has changed its modus operandi and is using cosmetics to mask its face that is tainted with terror. The ploy is obviously to get India into a diplomatic trap. It appears Mr. Singh did not learn from his past mistake. Has he become blissfully unaware of the joint statement with Pak PM Yusuf Gilani in 2009 in Sharm el-Sheikh that caused embarrassment even to his own party? It could be an emotional slip-up as well of an ageing Prime Minister who is desperate to make a mark in India’s political history and leave the rein to the scion of the Congress dynasty.

Incidentally the Congress earlier jumped on the bandwagon of Advani bashing when the senior BJP leader on a private visit to Jinha’s tomb in Karachi in 2005 had called Jinha secular. What Advani had in mind at that point of time, he later explained, was the historic speech Jinha made in Pakistan’s constituent assembly. The Congress leaders were however quick on their feet to jeer Advani for his “gaffe” and it did not occur to them about diplomatic niceties shown on such occasions.

Surprisingly also it is the same Manmohan Singh and his party which were not prepared to give peace a chance when Atal Behari Vajpayee took a bus trip to Lahore. Also when the Kargil war broke out instead of showing statesmanship Dr. Singh sitting in the opposition had criticized the Indian Army for Coffingate. It was sheer political opportunism of the Congress party to embarrass the Army which was engaged in a fierce battle to redeem India’s honour against Pakistani betrayal. 

Appeasement

Perhaps Mr. Singh cannot be blamed for his selective amnesia. But is it amnesia or convoluted secularism of the Congress Party or still worse Pakistani bugbear that is driving India’s foreign policy Pakistan-specific? India always tends to appease the Muslim countries as part of oil diplomacy though we got nothing substantive in return. The Muslim world has always favoured Pakistan over India. On the contrary India remains a soft state in the eyes of the world.

With its most dismal performance the UPA-2 has domestic compulsions to appeal to the minority vote bank to return to power in the coming 2014 elections. They are not sure if the draft bill- communalism and the targeted violence - will pass through Parliament.  By calling Gilani a man of peace Singh wants to kill two birds with one stone; he plays to the domestic vote bank gallery and at the same time pleases the US administration which always wants to keep Pakistan in good humour. Singh must have had a hurt ego when the US President strode past him to greet another head of State in the G-20 summit photo session. The unkind media publicity caused him further discomfiture. Therefore he must have had it uppermost in his mind to do something extra so he would get patted on the back by Barck Obama next time around.

Sino-Pak Axis of collaboration

Dr. Singh cannot be unaware that as long as Kashmir remains the core issue on Pakistan’s agenda India cannot gloss over the threat to her external security from the cross-border terrorism which is engineered by the ISI-trained terror camps along the LOC. Singh’s certificate to Pak PM Yusuf Raja Gilani as “a man of peace” will definitely act as a shot in the arm of the covert terrorist organization JuD with Hafiz Saeed as its chief.  Saeed is wanted in India to face criminal trial for masterminding the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. LeT technically is an outlawed terrorist group in Pakistan to which Ajmal Kassab belonged. Malik’s coup de grace for Kasab as such should come as no surprise. His statement is neither pro-Indian.  Strangely Prime Minister Singh’s rhetoric about Gilani being a man of peace puts India in the aggressor’s role in Kashmir and re-affirms Nehru’s ominous pledge of plebiscite for the Kashmiri people! The fact cannot be lost sight of that Pakistan in collusion with China is occupying one third territory of Kashmir which is the integral part of India.  

On the flip side China will also tend to step up its bellicose diplomacy towards India. Historically India always fights shy of the Chinese bully. That the Indian Prime minister had cut short his itinerary to avoid an official visit to the Tawang region in the face of the Chinese objection was indeed an abject surrender in diplomacy.  India has downplayed the recent confrontation of a Chinese vessel with the Indian Frigate ship INS Airavat off Vietnamese waters.  India’s muted position is in stark contrast with any incident that engaged China with the US and China’s calling the US a paper tiger on every such occasion.

The bottom line is that the soft secular India walks extra miles to befriend the Islamic state of Pakistan.  There will be hardly any taker for Manmohan Singh’s eulogy of Gilani as a man of pace. Pitiably the Congress Spokespersons get a tough brief to defend the indefensible.