PM blows chill wind over Gen Musharraf’s hot air

‘‘Yesterday, the president of Pakistan chose this august assembly to make a public admission for the first time that Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir. After claiming that there is an indigenous struggle in Kashmir, he has offered to encourage a general cessation of violence within Kashmir, in return for reciprocal obligations and restraints,’’ Vajpayee said.

The quid pro quo, the Prime Minister said, was entirely unacceptable. Moreover, Musharraf must not make the mistake of confusing the democratic aspirations of people, such as those in Kashmir, with ‘‘outmoded concepts of military parity.’’

New Delhi’s barely suppressed irritation at the US inability to get Pakistan to deliver on ending terrorism was voiced by none other than deputy prime minister L K Advani at home, who pointed out that Bush had failed to acknowledge that Mumbai was as much a victim of terrorism as Bali, Baghdad or Moscow.

That point was also made by the PM at his UN address this morning as well as during his interaction with Bush over lunch yesterday. ‘‘Unfortunately, the solidarity in words has not translated into coherent and effective action. Terrorist acts continue to shatter our peace, from Mombasa to Moscow, from Baghdad to Bali, India has had more than its share in various parts of the country,’’ Vajpayee said in his speech.

Privately, Indian officials say the US administration accepts that Musharraf needs to ‘‘do much more’’ on controlling terror, but that they are hamstrung by the fact that Islamabad is a key ally in the battle against the Al-Qaeda as well.

Meanwhile, US officials say that even as they press Musharraf to shut down the terrorist training camps, India must strengthen Musharraf’s battle against religious extremists in his own country by offering him dialogue.

Clearly, though, New Delhi is for the moment disinterested in doing more. In fact at his UN speech this morning, nearly 24 hours after his lunch with Bush where the subject of cross-border terrorism came up, the PM emphasized that when terrorism stops ‘‘or when we eradicate it, we can have a dialogue with Pakistan on the other issues between us.’’

But Vajpayee was also reserving some criticism for the UN’s refusal to allow an ‘‘enlightened materialism to materialize,’’ implying that a number of powerful nations were intent on sacrificing the world body’s consensual interests at the altar of self-interest, such as in Iraq.

‘‘We saw the extraordinary inability of the five permanent members of the Security Council to agree on action in respect of Iraq, inspite of complete agreement on basic objectives…The UN Charter also speaks of our collective determination to unite our strength (but) the UN has not always been successful in preventing conflicts or in resolving them,’’ he added.

Vajpayee also seemed unwilling to convert his address into a point-by-point rebuttal of Musharraf’s (two out of four pages of his speech were about the various ways in which India ‘‘brutally suppresses’’ the Kashmiri people).

He emphasized the fact that the same people in Jammu & Kashmir had actually come out in large numbers to participate in a wholly democratic election process last year.

The reference to democracy in India, even as Musharraf steadfastly refuses to get out of his uniform, was intended to remind the Security Council and especially the US, that India’s struggle to move ahead was taking place within such parameters.

The withering scorn against the ‘‘global coalition against terrorism,’’ the PM said, has ‘‘registered successes in Aghanistan, but has not been able to extend this elsewhere. ‘‘Some of its members are themselves part of the problem,’’ he said.

‘‘We are sometimes let into semantics about the definition of terrorism. The search for ‘‘root causes’’ or imaginary ‘‘freedom struggles’’ provides alibis for the killing of innocent men, women and children,’’ the PM added.