Pak responds to terror dossier: How should India react?

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How should India' assess Islamabad's response to India's terror dossier? Have the extent of the investigations and the candid revolutions taken the Indian government by surprise? What should one read into the internal developments of Pakistan both on the political front as well as the peace deal with the Taliban and Swat?

 

Mushahid Hussain, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee; Ayaz Amir, well-known columnist and Member of Parliament; Lalit Mansingh, the Former Foreign Secretary; G Parthasarathy, former High Commissioner to Pakistan delve deeper.

 

Here is a verbatim transcript of their exclusive interview on CNBC-TV18's show War of Words anchored by Karan Thapar. Also see the accompanying video.

 

Q: The Indian government has described Pakistan's response to the Mumbai terror as a positive development but were you surprised by the detailed nature of the investigations Islamabad carried out as well as the candour with which Rehman Malik revealed their findings?

 

Mansingh: I was not surprised but pleased because everything that came out of Islamabad earlier suggested that they are going to be in a state of denial. I think we must recognize that this was a tactical response that in the long-term I don't believe that we are going to get much cooperation out of Islamabad and the latest statement from the Pakistan Naval Chief confirms my diffidence about this.

 

Q: Before Rehman Malik went public, your High Commissioner in London said on the Indian television that he thought that in fact India's evidence such as it was useless and that in fact the conspiracy have not been hatched into Pakistan at all. Yesterday, Admiral Noman Bashir seems to have muddied the waters by questioning whether there was any evidence to suggest that the terrorists came by sea from Pakistan. Is this just confusion or does this suggest dissidence within the establishment in Pakistan?

 

Hussain: In context of south Asia, there is something called in Urdu the Nalayaki or South Asian Bureaucratic incompetence where sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing or saying. It happens all the time that on the same issue there are multiple voices. In India, there was Antulay who said one thing and Mukherjee who said another thing on the same issue, namely the Mumbai terrorist tragedy.

 

So, in Pakistan we also had Rehman Malik coming out in the open with lot of clarity and details on February 12 and now we have the statement yesterday (February 27, 2009) of Naval Chief Admiral Noman Bashir and the earlier statement you mentioned. So, the basic thing is that Pakistan's investigation is on track. Pakistan is sincere for a detailed investigation. We have come out with questions and Home Minister P Chidambaram has said that he will come out with the answers next week. So, we should leave it at that, we should not read too much into it whether it is tactical or not. We are both sailing in the same boat. We have shown our commitment to combat this common scourge of terrorism.

 

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Q: I have correctly understood you to suggest maybe to even say quite openly that the Admiral Noman Bashir is Nalayak?

 

Hussain: No, I said there is Nalayaki in the system. It happens all this time because there is no coordination between different wings of the government. It happens in India and it is happening in our case as well. You have to understand this aspect which is a permanent facet of our bureaucratic machinery.

 

Q: Although this is only the beginning and although Pakistan clearly needs to do a lot more, the Hindu says that Pakistan's response to the terror dossier was an astonishing degree of cooperation, the Times of India in its editorial said it is rare for any state to admit to terror plots hatched by its nationals on its soil against other states. Would you agree with those sentiments?

 

Parthasarathy: No, I am not an editorial writer but see it in the context of Pakistan's politics. I do believe that both the mainstream political parties: the People's Party and the Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif believe that what happened in Mumbai is going to have disastrous results for Pakistan and that it is not in Pakistan's interest itself. I am not sure that views shared by the military establishment.

 

Even along the Afghan border, the Americans reveal for example that General Kayani has called Jalaluddin Hakkani the Taliban military leader as a strategic asset. There is a tussle between the mainstream political parties, and it is unfortunate that they have fallen apart, on one hand and the military establishment.

 

Q: Rakesh Maria the joint commissioner of Police in Mumbai as well as our own Home Minister both said that they are not yet identified that Clonel Sadatullah or the unnamed major general are actually members of the Pakistan Army or members of LeT.

 

Parthasarathy: The IP address is that of the Special Communications Organization which is an organization run by the core of signals of the Pakistan Army.

 

Q: Are there differences between the civilian politicians in Pakistan on one hand and the military establishment or the other on how to respond to what's actually happening?

 

Amir: There could be a difference of emphasis but most of this difference lies in the imagination and in the fervid imagination of Indian commentators who speak about such issues. We can knit pick until evening about what Malik or the Admiral says, but the main thing should be was Pakistan upset by the Mumbai attacks, was Pakistan as a state involved?

 

The answers are that Pakistan was upset about it, the only difference between India and Pakistan that Indians should appreciate is that for you the Mumbai attacks have been something very big but for us the Mumbai Attacks fit in within a larger matrix of terrorism of which Pakistan is very much a centre and a victim. We face a much larger security situation that most Indians can conceive off, so what should be appreciated is how did it react to the attacks. Is it serious about the investigation? It has been and it will be serious. Casting doubts about it doesn't help the common purpose that all of us in the region should have about the larger terrorist situation that we face.

 

Q: Pakistan has posted 30 questions to India which our National Security Advisor has gone record to say. Would you accept the point made by Malik that it would be very difficult if not impossible for Pakistan to take the prosecution forward to conviction if India doesn't share with Pakistan the additional important that it has?

 

Mansingh: I entirely agree with that and I think these are legitimate questions and these need to be answered. I am glad our government has said that we will send the answers. This is not an issue of knit picking and the Naval Chief is saying something else.