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Pakistan 'perilously close' to being failed state, says India
Pakistan is 'perilously close' to becoming a failed state and is already 'pretty dysfunctional', Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram has said, and voiced fears that the rise of the Taliban in neighbouring Pakistan could have a spill-over effect on India. "I do not think it (Pakistan) is a failed state, but if it does not arrest the decline, it is perilously close to becoming one," said the Indian home minister in an interview on India's CNN-IBN network that was to be aired late on Monday. "It is pretty dysfunctional today," said Chidambaram.Asked -- by programme host Karan Thapar -- if India had a stake in ensuring stable civilian rule in Pakistan, he said, "Of course, a stable civilian democratic government means that we know who we are dealing with and there are checks and balances." He said that the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan "will encourage fundamentalists in India to imitate them, and number two the Taliban could become a sponsor of terror in India". "Therefore, I do not think we in India can view this lightly. We have to take this as a very serious and grave development," he said. Asked whether there was already concern that Taliban influence in Pakistan was encouraging fundamentalists in India, he said, "Yes, fundamentalists of both kinds." Asked whether he meant both Hindu and Muslim, he replied, "Yes." India has accused the banned Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) as well as 'official agencies' in Pakistan of being behind last year's Mumbai terror attacks. Posted by: Fred 2009-03-24 |
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