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“Cricket
Diplomacy” May Prevent War
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| Musharraf
shakes with Vajpayee
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By IOL correspondent Zafarul-Islam
Khan
NEW DELHI, Jan. 6 (Islamonline)
- The SAARC summit concluded at Kathmandu this morning with a resolution on
terrorism, an issue which dominated the conference. Pakistani President, General
Pervez Musharraf shook hands with Indian Prime Minister, AB Vajpayee, at
the close of the summit today.
If history repeats itself,
this unexpected gesture may well prevent a war-in-waiting between the two
nuclear powers.
In 1989 India held a huge
military exercise on Pakistani borders. Codenamed “Operation Brass Tacks,”
there were full preparations to attack Pakistan. India at the time was greatly
enraged by the Pakistani support to the secessionist movement in the Indian
province of Punjab.
The President of Pakistan at
the time, Ziaul Haq, got wind of the plan and flew to India uninvited to watch a
cricket match! This gesture, called “Cricket diplomacy,” took the then
Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, by surprise and the attack was called off.
Like its subcontinental
equivalent, “Ping-Pong diplomacy” has also played a vital role in balancing
relations between China and the U.S.
Concerning the handshakes
yesterday, Vajpayee said, "I am glad that President Musharraf extended a
hand of friendship to me. I have shaken his hand in your presence. Now President
Musharraf must follow this gesture by not permitting any activity in Pakistan or
any territory it controls today which enables terrorists to perpetrate mindless
violence in India."
Continuing in the same
refrain, he added that his past experience had taught him a bitter lesson,
claiming: "I went to Lahore with a hand of friendship. We were rewarded by
aggression in Kargil and the hijacking of an Indian airlines aircraft from
Kathmandu. I invited President Musharraf to Agra. We were rewarded with a
terrorist attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and on the parliament of
India."
Both leaders have different
audiences in mind. Musharraf was talking to the world media and international
public opinion while Vajpayee's eyes are on the forthcoming elections in Uttar
Pradesh, India's largest state, which will make or break the ruling BJP's
government at the centre.
The BJP has made
“terrorism” its main poll plank in the elections. Therefore there is no hope
that India's current political and diplomatic drive against Pakistan will be
much affected in the coming weeks.
India's one-point agenda of
terrorism was not taken well by other delegates at Kathmandu. Only Bhutan's
prime minister categorically condemned the attack on the Indian parliament on
December 13.
Sri Lanka's President,
Kumaratunga, also spoke against state terrorism. Sri Lanka is still reeling
under the terrorism of LTTE, an outfit created, armed, trained and funded by
India until it turned against its benefactor when New Delhi changed its policy.
By killing the late Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, the LTTE demonstrated
how terrorism can be counter-productive.
Kumaratunga cited Leon
Trotsky's observation that terrorism is characterised by "despair and
vengeance," and argued that the scourge cannot be fought through military
means alone unless the causes are also addressed.
Another positive development
from Kathmandu was that the Foreign Ministers of India and pakistan, Jaswant
Singh and Abdul Sattar, talked to each other for close to an hour, although the
Indian side tried to play it down by saying that the talk was not about
bilateral issues but about SAARC problems.
Meanwhile, tension continued
on the borders with Indian and Pakistani troops exchanging fire yesterday in the
Poonch sector on the Line of Control leading to a fresh exodus of around 5000
villagers on the Indian side.
Some military and civilian
casualties have been reported and four villages have been reportedly hit on the
Indian side.
India has also told the U.S.
that there is no need to send an “envoy of peace” to the area, an idea put
forward by Secretary of State Powell yesterday. “I do not see any need for a
special envoy for India and Pakistan to de-escalate on the border,” Singh
said.
It is India's long-standing
policy that all Indo-Pakistani problems should be settled by peaceful, bilateral
talks as enunciated in the Shimla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration
of February 1999.
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