Balochistan factor in Pak-India talks

Balochistan factor in Pak-India talks
Sultan M Hali
The BJP, its NDA partners and the SP staged a walkout in the lower house of Indian parliament, Lok Sabha over the inclusion of Baluchistan in the India-Pakistan joint statement The members of these opposition parties walked out of the lower house even as Indian external affairs minister S M Krishna was replying to a discussion on the Indian Prime Minister’s recent visit to Egypt where he met his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani. When Krishna reiterated that India had nothing to hide on the joint statement issued after the prime ministers’ meeting, Advani was on his feet asserting that the opposition’s chief concerns about the inclusion of Baluchistan and the delinking of terror from the composite dialogue process between the two neighbouring countries had not been addressed and led his party members out of the Lok Sabha.

The imbroglio results from the inclusion of the Baluchistan factor in Pak-India talks, which has triggered a wave of consternation amongst the opposition in India. They view it as a tacit admission of Indian meddling in the strife torn province and fomenting trouble through its infamous spy agency RAW. Indian government is busy in damage control through its media. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week defended the Indo-Pak joint statement in the Parliament by saying that Pakistan did not give any dossier to India on Baluchistan during their meeting in Egypt July 16. That is strange indeed. Was the Indian PM blindfolded or held at gunpoint by his Pakistani counterpart when the mention of Baluchistan reference was included in the joint statement? Times of India in its Op-Ed of July 28 ‘Pak Army Chief exploits Baloch bungle’ claims: “Encouraged by its success in getting Baluchistan inserted in the India-Pakistan joint statement in Sharm el-Sheikh, Islamabad is cranking up its propaganda machinery to raise the bogey of India’s meddling in its volatile province. Reports in the US media quoting official sources said Pakistan army Chief Ashfaque Kayani recently sought to link Pakistan’s actions against Lashkar-e-Taiba with India putting a stop to its alleged covert operations in Baluchistan. The reports in US media said that while Kayani had promised to ‘control’ LeT, claiming ‘we are being more vigilant’, he stressed that India should halt its operations in Baluchistan. ‘By the way, India has to stop messing around in Baluchistan,’ US media quoted Pakistani officials as saying. The attempt to establish linkages should reinforce those who felt that the mention of Baluchistan was a big blunder which may be exploited by Pakistan to put RAW on the same footing as the ISI, and to claim that India was also guilty of using terror as an instrument to further its strategic objectives. The charge is absurd, if only for the reason that India does not have the capacity to engage in covert operations to harass Pakistan even if it wished so. But the fear is that it may find fertile ground among a constituency in the US desperately looking for ways to inveigle India into the Af-Pak cauldron.

In fact, Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Af-Pak, is learnt to have already asked his Indian interlocutors whether India would stop its ‘activities’ in Baluchistan. This ‘messing around in Baluchistan’ phrase is likely to pop up more and more in Pak-US conversations. There is no evidence that they can point to but that is not going to deter the Pakistanis. Pakistani PM Yusuf Gilani, after his return from the eventful encounter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Sharm el-Sheikh, has also kept the Baluchistan issue alive. While saying Pakistan would start a new chapter in ties with India, Gilani said the joint statement ‘underlines (Pakistan’s) concerns over Indian interference in Baluchistan and other areas of Pakistan” and ‘calls for working to create an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence’. In Swat valley, Pakistani army commanders think nothing of saying that it is actually India that is funding and sponsoring the Taliban, which is an extremist Islamist grouping, including Baitullah Mehsud, who is now described as being financed by India. Pakistanis are already celebrating the victory in Sharm el-Sheikh. ‘We’ve externalized an internal problem,’ the Wall Street Journal quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying.”

Ordinary Indians have expressed their concern at what India has conceded. Seema from New Delhi, commenting on the above story says: “Oh my god. Manmohan Singh, country will never forgive you for this blunder 2009. Thank you TOI for printing this story.” Dr Shankar Singh opines: “PM has landed the country in a mess. Reference to Baluchistan has provided Pakistan besides Kashmir with yet another handle to corner India for all time to come. In delinking terrorism with composite dialogue, we have surrendered to the dictates of Pakistan, nobody knows under what compulsion. PM should leave foreign policy matters to be handled by Minister for External Affairs.”

Indian secret service RAW came into action to give Pakistan a clear cut message by fomenting trouble. Violence broke out in a Gojra village near Toba Tek Singh last week after an alleged incident of desecration of the Holy Quràn during a wedding ceremony. 40 Christian homes had been torched on Saturday by the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba group, which is accused of attacking security forces and of staging bombings at public places in recent years. Initial findings indicate no truth to allegations that the Holy Quràn had been defiled. The international community has taken immediate cognizance of the riots and expressed their concern. In a statement released on Sunday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini denounced the violence against Christians as ‘a very grave and unjustifiable attack against human rights and in particular against the inalienable right to religious freedom’. Meanwhile India is using the promise to renew dialogue with Pakistan as a part of its coercive diplomacy.

Times of India in its August 3 story ‘India sets bar higher for talks with Pak’ reveals the real intent. Indian support for BLA and its gruesome meddling in Baluchistan needs to be exposed.
Email:sm_hali@yahoo.com