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From Tehelka Archives
November 15, 2001
‘Bombing a country is not the worried about war and its after-effects,
especially in view of the nuclear scare
today. All these aspects must be kept in
only way of handling a situation’ mind while deciding on the next step.

With Pakistan being the United
States’ new ally, can India expect US
UDAY BHASKAR, eminent security expert penalty. help against Pakistan?
and deputy director, Institute of Defence Indirectly, Pakistan will be obliged to America has already offered us their
and Strategic Analysis, speaks to AMAN view the situation carefully. Russia, Brit- expertise, and the FBI (Federal Bureau
SINGH about the December 13 attack on ain and Mauritius are monitoring the of Investigation) is also helping us. Obvi-
the Indian Parliament, and emphasises implementation of the resolution, and ously, we must be practical and realise
that war should be the last option for India they will not let Pakistan be an exception that their main target still remains Al
Eminent security expert and deputy to an international order. They will col- Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. They are
director, Institute of Defence and Strategic lectively exert pressure on Pakistan, and more concerned about their own objec-
Analysis, Uday Bhaskar points out that the India will get what it wants. tives in Afghanistan than with helping
US could be relied upon to support India’s us. We should look towards garnering
fight against terrorism, if things come to Would this be sufficient? empathy, rather than support, in the cur-
a crunch. He strongly suggests that India Of course, Pakistan will then have to rent situation. They must acknowledge
should look at the UN Resolution 1373 as deal with these groups (Lashkar-e-Toiba the cause… We have to be practical; we
the base for all negotiations, saying that and Jaish-e-Mohammad) on its own. should not expect outsiders to come and
this would force Pakistan to the back foot. This would be an efficient way of deal- do the needful for us.
Excerpts from the interview: ing with issue now. It is also well within
the borders of diplomacy that the Indian Do you think America will exert
EDITED EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW • government has been so successfully pressure on Pakistan if needed?
following. I believe the US’ ban on the two terror-
There is much talk about the Indian ist groups is indication enough that they
government taking “firm action”. But will war not be the better way can pressurise Pakistan.
Would this translate into an attack on out to decide a conflict that the two
Pakistani military camps? If it is, do countries have been fighting ever Going back to the attack on
you think that would advisable, given since independence? What do you Parliament, do you think it was a
the current international situation? think of Pakistan’s position now? security lapse? How do you view the
No. At this point, we must think pru- Pakistan has already changed its policy whole incident?
dently, consider the diplomatic space several times, the most recent being its December 13 was just another reminder
available to us, and react accordingly. Afghanistan policy. The Musharraf re- of the unpredictable conditions and sit-
We must not be emotive. We must han- gime has received enough flak for har- uations that arise in terrorism, and the
dle Pakistan diplomatically, and only bouring terrorists, and funding terrorist fight against it. They managed to cross
within the space we can intrude upon groups. If we bomb them, we will have the first ring and enter Parliament, de-
diplomatically. Bombing a country is not the whole international community spite checks. This is what happens in a
the only way to handling a situation. reign of terror. We need rigorous
rules and regulations and exper-
So…what then do you think is tise to prevent recurrence of such
advisable now? incidents.
The best option now would be the Why say “lapse” all the time? The
United Nations Security Council term used is wrongly. The secu-
Resolution 1373, which urges mem- rity forces behaved in a responsible
ber states to extend support towards manner and reacted as they were
meeting the threat of terrorism with expected to, sacrificing lives, sus-
counteractions, and preventing fur- taining casualties, firing and coun-
ther encouragement of terrorist tering fire. This is their duty, and that
activity. This puts a responsibility on is what they did. If they had fallen
all countries to fight international apart, we could have called it a se-
terrorism. In accordance with that, curity lapse. Principally, the term is
Pakistan would have certain obliga- wrong. It wasn’t a lapse; in fact it was
tions to perform as a member state. entirely the opposite. They saved the
This would make it mandatory for day for us. They must be congratu-
Pakistan to work as per the rules, lated for saving the day.
and non-compliance with the reso-
lution would make them liable to LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

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