India should take Musharraf seriously,
says Wolpert
By Fakhr Ahmad
LOS ANGELES, Feb 6: The time has come when India should start taking
Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf seriously and must realize
that Kashmir is really a problem.
This was stated by an eminent scholar on Asian history and former
Assistant Vice-Chancellor at UCLA, Professor Stanley Wolpert, at a
one-hour examination of issues pertaining to nuclear rivals India and
Pakistan.
The programme was arranged by Los Angeles World Affairs Council the
other day and was co-sponsored by Council of Pakistan American Affairs (COPAA).
"We have to take a more proactive role in helping to resolve the
conflict in Kashmir. It is a conflict. The Indians, however, like to say
there is no Kashmir problem, which they do for their own consumption.
(But) anyone who knows the region understands that the Indian army is
viewed by most of the Kashmiris in the valley as an army of occupation,
not as an army of protection," Wolpert said.
Wolpert, who is an author of over 20 books on Pakistan and India and an
internationally recognized authority on India-Pakistan affairs, said for
India, Pakistan could not have a better leader than Musharraf.
"If he (Musharraf) is removed, Pakistan could either go back to the
kind of narrowness of rule that it had before or it could become more
militant in defying India, since there are a number of generals, who
have been removed by President Musharraf, who are still waiting in the
wings and would like very much to take a more vigorous action,"
Wolpert told an audience at the prestigious Beverly Hills Hotel,
consisting of professors, researchers, politicians and students.
The professor said he hoped India would appreciate that Pakistan was not
trying to destabilize or destroy India's elected government; that
Pakistan respects and recognizes India's elected government, and that
the current buildup on the border was an excessive escalation.
"President Musharraf has done something which I think very few
generals in modern times can be expected to do. He has, I believe, the
toughest job of any leader of any nation in Asia today."
He said the swiftness of Pakistan in preventing a dreadful nuclear war,
whose capitals are just seven minutes of ballistic missiles of each
other, in the aftermath of Dec 13 attacks on Indian parliament building,
by putting some 2,500 suspected terrorists behind bars and retaining a
degree of cool and banning five militant organizations, all indicate
remarkable Pakistani statesmanship.
During the hour-long discussion, Wolpert, who visited Pakistan and India
last December, also dwelt at length on why negotiation was the only way
to resolve Kashmir issue and why India was feeling dejected following
the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC.
Wolpert said many in Pakistan believed that the Dec 13 attack on the
parliament was staged by India itself.
"Though I don't believe for a moment that that is true or that was
the case but there were many Pakistanis who did because the Indian false
hijacking of one plane a few months before, and then several years
before, led them to feel that India would do anything to call sufficient
attention so that it could act with impunity in taking Kashmir, the Azad
Kashmir quarter, that is in Pakistan's control."
The problem is India is feeling neglected after Sept 11 and had been
disappointed that USA had turned to Pakistan, which was geographically
necessary for any action in Afghanistan, despite its (India's) open
offer to facilitate US troops. Then, India chose a maverick way to get
attention.
Wolpert reminded Indian leadership of Mahatma Gandhi's simple solution
on Kashmir: "One should always admit one's mistakes," Gandhi
told premier Nehru: "I shall advise Pakistan and India to sit
together and decide the matter. If they want an arbitrator they can
appoint one. Kashmir cannot be saved by military might alone. India and
Pakistan must come together and decide the issue with the help of
impartial mediation. Is there no one in India who is impartial?"
In the last weeks of Mahatma's life, Gandhi moaned only the good and the
noble could be brave; stupid could never be brave, adding, "If I
had my way I would have invited Pakistan's representative to India and
we could have met, discussed the matter and worked out a settlement. We
should at least try." Then he said: "Today, mine is a cry in
the wilderness."
Ten days later he was assassinated by a Hindu who said that the old man
was nothing but a Muslim lover and a traitor to India.
That Hindu was part of the RSS, part of the right-wing extremist Hindu
group that has among its more recent members many of the leaders of
India's current BJP government, including its prime minister who was
once a member of that group.
|