By K Subrahmanyam
The incoming US president, Barack Obama, has suggested in an interview that he might consider sending former president Bill Clinton as a special envoy to India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. He conceded that it was a diplomatic trap, yet wanted to devote serious diplomatic resources to send a special envoy. The purpose was to make the argument to us Indians that we are on the verge of becoming an economic superpower and it does not help us to keep the Kashmir issue burning. And, to ask Pakistanis why they would want to remain bogged down by Kashmir, particularly at a time when their biggest threat was coming from the Afghan border.
| Bambi really is naïve, isn't he ... |
The president-elect could not have selected a worse moment to air these thoughts.
| Sure he could have, at least for him: last month, for example ... |
Kashmir is due to go in for elections in the next few weeks. Such a suggestion will come in handy for secessionist elements.
It will compel the Indian government to declare that no special envoy will be acceptable. It will be difficult for Bill Clinton, who is popular and has a lot of friends in India, to come to this country as a special envoy without being greeted by demonstrators with black flags. When President Clinton offered to mediate in the Kargil war, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee politely declined.
Obviously, Obama had not been adequately briefed on the history of Afghanistan and Pakistan during the Clinton years.
| He hasn't been briefed about a lot of things, and he wasn't attending in the Senate often enough to hear what he needed to know. Then again, he has a 'team of 300 crack advisors on foreign policy', we're told. I guess no one got the Kashmir desk. |
Otherwise he would not have missed that the Taliban was established by the Benazir Bhutto's government, with the help of the Pakistani army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) during 1994 when Clinton was in office. His administration tried to negotiate a pipeline deal with the Taliban. Osama bin Laden came back to Afghanistan and hatched the 9/11 plot under Clinton's watch.
| Don't expect the Dhimmicrats to remember any of that ... |
As the Pakistanis point out, the jihadis were a joint creation of the CIA, the Saudis and the ISI. The present threat to Pakistan on its western border is an outcome of this joint blunder.
| Don't expect the Dhimmicrats to remember any of that, either ... |
India and Pakistan already have a no-war pact under the Simla agreement and there is a composite peace process going on between the two countries. Largely due to Indian initiative, cross-border trade has been initiated. All these steps have been taken without any third party help. Unlike Iran, Cuba and North Korea, India has never taken a stand against directly talking to another country with which it has problems.
| Don't worry, Bambi wants to talk with everyone, he told us so ... |
One of the problems that India may have to face at the start of the Obama administration is the likely return of many former officials tainted by the cultivation of jihadi forces, who are tolerant towards the Taliban and permissive of the China-Pakistan nuclear proliferation axis. While Obama himself may have a tough line towards the mixing of faith and politics, many of the traditional Democratic party ex-diplomats, ex-militarymen and ex-intelligence officials may not be able to shun the cronyism they have indulged in with their Pakistani Counterparts.
| There is a history there, isn't there. Bambi could easily un-do all the good work George Bush has done to cultivate the Indians. Instead we'll cultivate the waki-Pakis. Bambi then will be at a loss when Pak-land goes kaboom and drags down Afghanistan with it. |
This is likely to prove to be an albatross around Obama's neck in dealing with the Afghanistan-Pakistan issue. General Petraeus has been entrusted with formulating a new surge strategy for Afghanistan as the new chief of the central command. He has assembled a team of American, Pakistani and Afghan specialists. It will be useful to invite him for a comprehensive briefing to New Delhi.
This will provide Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an opportunity to prove that the Indo-US nuclear deal will not compromise India's strategic autonomy. Obama is a flexible intellectual with an acute sense of pragmatism.
| So we're told, but we haven't seen the latter yet ... |
Under the influence of non-proliferation ayatollahs during the deliberations on the Indo-US nuclear cooperation legislation, he did move a killer amendment. When he was outvoted, he went along with the majority and voted in favour of the Bill. Similarly, in this case it has to be explained to him that Pakistan's claim to Kashmir is based on the jihadi philosophy. His suggestion will only result in Pakistan continuing to evade its responsibility to act against both the Afghan and Pakistani sections of the Taliban.
The writer is a Delhi-based strategic affairs analyst. |