India's Wish List

India's Wish List
Ahsan-Waheed

India does not want to talk to Pakistan. What does it want? From the writings that come out of India especially from the RAW sponsored South Asia Analysis Group an Indian wish list is clearly discernible.

India wants Pakistan to be kept permanently in the dog house for a past proliferation episode and does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan has taken measures to achieve almost unassailable security and state of the art command and control measures. India wants the world to note and keep noting the extremist threat from Pakistan and Pakistan alone. It does not want anyone to ponder on the world wide extremism phenomenon. Nor does it want anyone to even think about the response by Islam to the threat it faces from extremism. And it certainly does not want a focus on the Hindoo extremism within India and the large segments of India's population and officialdom involved in this menace.

India wants Pakistan to be labeled the epicenter of terror. It does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan is the victim of terror and that it is fighting a successful counterinsurgency that has its roots in Afghanistan. It also does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan has cut the link between international terror and the extremists with domestic agendas and is now shoring up its internal security. India does not want the spotlight on its own activities to destabilize Pakistan by covert support to subversive elements in Baluchistan and insurgents in FATA. It is this policy by India that backfired and led to the bombing of its embassy in Kabul and the terrorist attacks in Bombay. India makes much of the dossier presented to Pakistan but it does not want anyone to investigate the domestic links to the attack. India is irked by the US-Pakistan relationship and wants the US, its media and its people to be fed anti Pakistan propaganda and it uses all its assets for that.

There is more. India on its way to becoming a world power is worried about the nuclear and conventional threat from Pakistan. Its Army Chief thinks that Pakistan is going beyond legitimate deterrence requirements. No one should however question India's massive conventional build up and unrestrained nuclear weapons development that has received a massive boost through the US-India Nuclear Technology Agreement. India is appalled that a Chinese scholar has dared to publish a treatise on the possible break up of India—under the weight of its ambitions and death wishes for others.

India, of course, is a sovereign state and has a right to its wishes and plans to get those wishes fulfilled. It just needs to note whether the reactions and counter strategies triggered by its policies are in its own or regional or world interest? Already there is talk of India's linkage to the Tamil Tigers for the mess in Sri Lanka and for the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan. More such revelations could follow. This is the time when India can reassure others and move towards bilateral talks and regional harmony—but that is not what India wishes for.