Asia ReView

By Anand K. Sahay

New Delhi

Dec. 2: In discussions with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice here on Wednesday, Indian representatives are expected to underline the perspective that terrorism perpetrated in India by elements within Pakistan cannot be brushed aside as an India-Pakistan issue.

It must legitimately be seen, well-placed sources suggest, as part of a serious worldwide problem that has driven America’s own foreign and security affairs agenda for much of President George W. Bush’s time in office.

High level sources indicated on Tuesday that during her day-long visit, Ms Rice was expected to counsel restraint so that Islamabad may not think to transfer its troops from its Afghan border — where it is supposed to engage the Taliban — to the Indian frontier. According to conventional thinking, such a move would adversely impact US interests in the region.

However, the Indian view is that this is segmented thinking in dealing with one of the most serious issues confronting the international community. Dr Rice may expect to hear analysis that the non-state actor elements that are creating so much trouble in northern and western Pakistan as well as Afghanistan are ideologically, as well as in networking terms, the same as those who carry out frequent strikes against this country.

The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, which carried out the horror attack in Mumbai, in particular, is an outfit that has interlocking arrangements with the Taliban and the Al Qaeda-related groups active in Iraq.

Whatever the US approach, sources maintained that India would retain its autonomy of action in plotting steps to raise the costs for the ideological extremists in Pakistan.

The composite Indian view on the subject is expected to be conveyed by foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon to the transition team of US President-elect Barack Obama, who is scheduled to assume office on January 20 next. Mr Menon is currently on an official visit to the US.

Even before the foreign secretary embarked on his visit, a high Indian official informally conveyed to ranking members of the Obama team the centrality of a shared approach on the issue of terrorism-instability-democracy in South Asia.

It was pointed out in this context that the war in Afghanistan and the tribal badlands of Pakistan could not be conceptually divorced from terrorist depredations wrought in Kashmir and other places in India. As such, this needed to be kept in view by the international community in devising ways to combat terror.

It was also communicated to the leading lights of the incoming administration that the very high voting percentage in the Kashmir Valley in three rounds of polling in the Assembly election reinforced the validity of the Indian approach of inclusiveness while militarily fighting the terrorists trained in and armed by Pakistan, sources said.