Saturday, October 28, 2017

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Power Centre of Pakistan needs to wake up' that was published in Newsband

Power Centre of Pakistan needs to wake up
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave a speech on India-U.S. ties that was as broad as it was deep, talking of the road ahead together for “the next 100 years”. The role of India in the U.S.’s plans in two spheres. In Afghanistan, as a part of President Donald Trump’s new South Asia policy, and in the Indo-Pacific, as part of U.S. plans to counter China’s influence and contain North Korea. Both India and US condemn the act of Pakistan of supporting terrorist safe havens.
Both Indian and U.S. officials spoke in detail about building an alternative coalition to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative as well as its aggressive moves in the South China Sea. India and the U.S. have taken great strides in aligning their vision and their hopes for future partnership.
But while American troops remain in Afghanistan, it is difficult for the U.S. to completely disengage from Pakistan. For India, while a maritime relationship with the U.S. is desirable, geographic proximity to China makes a very close alliance with the U.S. difficult.
Trump’s withdrawal from U.S. commitments in Asia, Europe and at the UN, is a thing of concern for India. Just the handshake with Tillerson is not sufficient for India to create framework for various issues. We should need to make special strategies to join the shoulder with USA.
US policy of inconsistent policy towards Asia has made India wary of the future course of action. While it is not spelling out its relations with Pakistan clearly, it wants good relations with India. This situation creates unease in foreign policy framework. The United States is worried that emboldened terror outfits could threaten the stability of the government of Pakistan. But Tillerson has assured that Indian and US have a mutually shared interest in not just containing these organisations, but ultimately eliminating them.  
He emphasised that the U.S. wants to work with Pakistan, as this is also in the interest of the country and the larger region, to eliminate terrorism emanating from its territory.
In hind sight everything can be explained, what we need is leadership to solve big issues. The key issue is how to eliminate the root causes of terrorism. We need a plan to eradicate these through diplomacy and dialogue. Every war has been painful and caused immense pain so far in our history. If U S A wants to control Pakistan, it should stop supply of financial aid hitherto donated liberally and stop supply of all kinds of Arms and ammunition. Oral threats will not have any effect.
Pakistan's internal destabilization has been a cause for concern from a long time. A threat that could spiral out in the open and destroy with it the very fabric of democracy. We as neighbours have registered our concern with the UN, US and everyone willing to listen to us, but the world started taking terrorism seriously post 9/11. Wish people had paid heed to the warnings earlier, then things would have been much safer and easier to control.

What India fails to understand is why is U.S. so much infatuated with Pakistan. Even after the 9/11 attacks on U.S. targets the U.S. Government came up with convoluted rationalizations to continue aid to Pakistan. Previous Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also warned Pakistan of the dangers & consequences of supporting Terrorists in Pakistan with her analogy, "if you keep snakes in your back yard you better be careful otherwise you might get bitten". Tillerson might be a bit more forthcoming if not explicit. The polarised power center of Pakistan need to wake up quickly before they find nothing to wake up to.

No comments:

Post a Comment