Why India needs an Obama plan for Pakistan
By Mansoor Ijaz
Published: November 8 2010 22:17 | Last updated: November 8 2010 22:17
It was February 2004 and Chandar D. Sahay, then India's top intelligence official, had just received intercepted cables sent by Pakistan-based jihadists planning a third attempt on General Pervez Musharraf's life. Without hesitation and with his prime minister's blessings, Mr Sahay sent the intercepts and other crucial information to General Ehsan ul-Haq, Pakistan's intelligence chief. The assassins made their attempt. Their bid was foiled.
Such was the value placed by India on the life of the Pakistani leader that decades of distrust were set aside in that moment. Mr Sahay understood that Pakistan's extremists had become an uncontrollable force, unmanageable by even their own creators inside Pakistan's army and intelligence machinery. The terrorists, he reasoned, were now everyone's problem and only joint action would get them under control.
Barack Obama reminded his Indian hosts of this reality on Monday as he addressed India's parliament. The US president made clear that security is the cornerstone of sustainable economic growth in free societies, acknowledging that his own ambitions for the American economy would remain unfulfilled until countries such as India could grow without the fear of instability and havoc that terrorists sow.
In the months ahead, a realistic blueprint needs to be drafted that provides an open security architecture for the region. For Pakistan is a country that can no longer manage the monsters it has created. Mr Obama's first step should be to bring key Indian and Pakistani army and intelligence officials together so they can candidly discuss the technical issues that divide them and frame co-operative plans that minimise distrust, maximise bilateral exchanges on countering terrorism and clear a pathway for the private and public sectors of both countries to work freely with each other. There are many hard-working, honest, apolitical men and women of goodwill at the upper echelons of both the Indian and Pakistani command structures who would welcome such an opening if America could take the lead role.
Such co-operation would reduce stress not only along the Indo-Pakistani border, enabling those resources to be spent elsewhere in stabilising Pakistan, but also in Afghanistan, where Islamabad perceives an Indian effort to squeeze it out of a traditional power base. Defusing mistrust here is critical. As a confidence-building measure, India could for example ask Pakistan's military to join its own in training the new Afghan army.
Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, should take the next step by offering a robust bilateral trade pact between India and Pakistan in order to help stabilise Pakistan's economy. Whatever his public misgivings about Pakistan's terrorism record, privately he surely understands what Mr Sahay did back in 2004 – that the terrorists nurtured by Pakistan are now everyone's problem. He should invite Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, to a summit in India where trade is at the centre but counterterrorism co-operation is the foundation. It is likely that Mr Zardari would gladly accept and accommodate his Indian hosts at every level.
Pakistan could respond to India's offer of economic revitalisation and political reconciliation by handing over all those suspected of involvement in the Mumbai attacks a year ago, healing the political wounds of that terrible day. Gen Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan's army chief, could show good faith to his Indian counterparts by shutting down supply lines to Haqqani terrorist cells in northern Waziristan where Mumbai-type terrorists plot future attacks. He could also encourage Pakistani-backed jihadists in Kashmir to back off, helping to break the cycle of violence and setting the stage for rational talks over Kashmir's future.
Mr Obama and Mr Singh have achieved much in three days. But much remains to be done. It can all work if India understands that its fortunes are inextricably linked to the stabilisation and future prospects of Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries in the region. America must play the role of trust-builder and help to heal the divisions in a region home to one quarter of all humanity.
The writer, an American of Pakistani descent, jointly authored the blueprint for a ceasefire of hostilities between Indian security forces and Islamist militants in Kashmir in July and August 2000
