The Kathua-Samba free run of the Pakistani desperadoes killing nine Indians including a Lt Colonel of the Army has once again put the nation of 1.2 billion people in a tizzy. Coincidentally this has put poor Manmohan in a sticky situation of holding a scheduled talk with Nawab Sharif in America when they are supposed to meet in UN!
In August this year, few militants (allegedly backed by Pak army) crossed the LOC and killed five of our Jawans. The country heard the usual dose of super-nationalist sentiments and political rhetoric from both the opposition well as the ruling party. Modi in his first meeting in Rewari after being named as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, uttered his quota of unintelligible gibberish that he passed of as his policy vis-a-vis Pakistan. Modi ofcourse glorified the Atal Behari Vajpayee era of Governance as of India.
Immediately after the Kathua-Samba encounter, Yashwant Sinha of BJP ruled out the talks between our Prime Minister and the Pakistan Prime Minister. Modi, who was in distant Kerala and thereafter in Trichy, in his usual drame-baaz style told his audience that while Pakistanis were causing a river of our blood, somewhere else the river of love was flowing (referring to Manmohan's insistence to talk with Nawaz). He then asked his audience thrice whether Manmohan should speak to Nawaz? Three loud "NOs" from the Trichi audience decided the foreign policy of Modi!
We are once again constrained to look at the Atal era to find out what BJP was doing under a much more provocative situation than the present one.
Vajpayee-Nawaz Sharif floated the idea of Lahore Delhi Bus Service. The bus had made its trial runs on January 8. Vajpayee's bus arrived in Pakistan on 20 February, 1999, and was met with much fanfare on both sides of the border. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif opened the gate of Pakistan to receive the Prime Minister of India and his delegation of eminent persons who had boarded the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus at Amritsar airport.
While on one hand Vajpayee was taking his Bus ride to Lahore, the Pakistani Army backed militants had already started planning the Kargil infiltration – there are even claims of Musharraf having addressed Nawaz Sharif about the Kargil plans in the first week of February 1999. Indian army units were rushed into Kashmir in response. Operation Vijay (1999), launched in June 1999, saw the Indian military fighting thousands of militants and soldiers amidst heavy artillery shelling and while facing extremely cold weather, snow and treacherous terrain at high altitudes. Over 500 Indian soldiers were killed in the three-month long Kargil War and after heavy sacrifice, the Indian forces could regain a large part of the area captured by the Pakistan army. The Bus Service was not suspended despite such a treacherous attack that left 500 Jawans dead!
Once again on 24th December 1999, Indian Airlines flight (IC 814) en-route from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked by five Pakistani terrorists and flown to Taliban ruled Afghanistan after refueling in Lahore. The hijackers the release of certain Kashmiri terrorists like Maulana Masood Azhar from prison. Jaswant Singh, the Indian External Affairs minister, flew with the terrorists to Afghanistan and exchanged them for the passengers. The Bus service was still not suspended.
In the meantime, Gen. Musharraf had overthrown Nawaz Sharif and declared himself the President. Shockingly, Vajpayee found this man eminently suitable to make peace with – who was squarely responsible for the Kargil war and supporting cross border terrorism. Musharraf was invited to come to Agra and hold peace talks. The Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Visitng President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Gen. Pervez Musharraf held one-to-one talks at Jaypee Palace, Agra on July 15, 2001.
On 13 December 2001, a group of masked, armed men with fake IDs stormed the Parliament building in Delhi. The terrorists managed to kill several security guards, but the building was sealed off swiftly and security forces cornered and killed the men. After three such major blows, Atal Behari had to give up his Bus and the service was suspended after the Parliament attack.
The era that BJP's celebrated Prime Ministerial candidate believes to be the golden era is nothing but the most humiliating and disastrous buckling down before the armed bullies without making any effort to reach out and strengthen the democratic forces within Pakistan to counter the rule of the military and its subsidiary extremist forces. The election of Nawaz Sharif this year appears to be supported by the nascent democratic forces that fought and removed Gen. Musharraf.
It may be recalled that the main movement against Musharraf was led by the legal fraternity of Pakistan, especially after the removal of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court, Mr Iftikar Qureshi. Nawaz Sharif has in fact appointed Mr Munir, who led the anti-Musharraf movement since 2004, as the Attorney General of Pakistan. The trade unions, civil rights organisations and lawyers fraternity are trying to build the democratic Institutions and isolate the militants and the army. Manmohan Singh would therefore to do a historic job if he can reach out to such democratic forces through Nawaz and help build a new Pakistan.
The Kathua-Samba attack was therefore a desperate bid to stall the talks between the two Prime Ministers, but BJP lost in its own extremist ideology does not want to build any long term peace with Pakistan since they will have no enemy left to instigate the people of India against!
Comments
| Quick linksNews
National
International
Regional
Politics
Education & Career
Business
Science & Technology
Health
Views & Analysis
The Funny Side
© 2012 Awaz Multimedia & Publications. All rights reserved.
Voter has right to negative voting: SCFour soldiers, six policemen and two civilians were killed in Jammu and Kashmir Thursday in an audacious terror attack that also left three militants presumably from Pakistan dead. Furious over the nine hours of mayhem, the BJP asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call off his .... More
Also Read: Right to recall unworkable in India: Chief Election Commissioner
AR Rahman, Muhammad Ali Clay conferred Jewels of Muslim World AwardThe Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday honoured famous Indian music composer A R Rehman and boxing great Muhammad Ali, along with 08 other outstanding Muslims, by conferring on them the Jewels of the Muslim World Award.... More
Apart from the cases of corruption, in the last three years, the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Gujarat have entrusted four cases of fake encounters of Gujarat to the CBI. The cases are that of Sohrabuddin-Kauserbi, Tulsi Prajapati, Javed-Ishrat ... More
"If the temples release some of their gold, the country need not import this for another four-five months. It will be win-win situation for both the government and the temples. The government will save a lot of foreign exchange," he ...... More
