Terrorism and dialogue cannot go hand in hand

Aniruddh Subhedar

In the wake of recent attacks by Pakistan on LoC and killing of  five Indian soldiers, various prominent  former bureaucrats,  former armed forces officials and strategist experts released a statement exposing the real intentions of Pakistan and advising the Indian government to deal with the situation in a more practical way instead of looking it through the rose-coloured glasses.

The statement was released in a Press Conference on August 9 in the Constitution Club (New Delhi) by dignitaries like Shri Ajit Doval former Director IB, Shri G Parthasarathy, former High Commissioner to Pakistan, Shri Satish Chandra, former Deputy National Security Advisor, Vice Admiral K K Nayyar, former Vice Chief of Naval Staff, Shri Kanwal Sibal, former Foreign Secretary, Shri Dhirendra Singh, former Home Secretary, Shri AK Verma, former Secretary RAW and Gen NC Vij  former Chief of Army staff.

They recommended the Indian Government not to rush into a dialogue with Pakistan and cancel the proposed meeting between the Prime Ministers of the two countries.

“… it would signal that relations between the two countries are in a business-as-usual mode. India should show no anxiety to hold a dialogue with the Pakistan, keep a steady focus on the issues of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in any conversation that takes place…” said the statement.

The statement said instead of leaning too much on the Nawaz Sharif’s claims of improving relations with India or giving it MFN status; it is time to device policies “that will impose a cost on Pakistan for its export of terror to India”.

It also criticised the petty electoral politics that is done while implementing counter –terrorism measures and defence preparedness. “Motivated assertion and leaks to the media”, it said, undermine the vital institutions like the Army and IB and inflict “incalculable damage” on the morale of the personnel concerned.

Shri Ajit Doval said that without the help of the Pakistan Army it was impossible for 15-20 people to come with weapons, cross the LoC and stay for a couple of hours. Shri Doval said that these people should have been prevented and arrested but no such thing was done by the Paki Army.  General Vij said that such an operation cannot be done on a local level, Paki Army was directly involved in it.

Shri Parthasarathy while answering a question in the Press conferences said that we have given an impression to Pakistan that they can get away with whatever they do against us and we’ll still continue with our composite dialogues.

When asked about the threat of a nuclear war Shri Satish Chandra said that such threats from Pakistan have no legs to stand upon. Looking at the size of Pakistan it cannot afford to have a nuclear war since if such war broke it’ll virtually destroy that country. Also Shri Parthasarathy said that Pakistan is not efficient enough to have its own nuclear programme. All it has is given by China. Shri AK Verma said that the most appropriate way to deal with the Pakistan is to look at it through the prism of Islam. All its actions are actuated by religious extremism and their scope is determined by this extremism only. Hafiz Saeed has openly said that he wants to see the flag of Islam flying all over India.

The statement was signed by forty prominent people like former Home Secretary Shri Anil Baijal, former Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, former Army Chief Gen. Shankar RoyChowdhury, former Secretary of RAW Shri CD Sahay, former Army Chief Gen VN Verma, former Vice Chief of Army and Governor of J&K and Assam Lt Gen SK Sinha et al.