M D Nalapat
Together
with Kashmir, a territory that divides the Pakistan establishment from
its counterpart in India is Afghanistan, a land of great beauty that has
suffered the cruelty of conflict since the Soviet invasion of 1979. Led
by the Pakistan military, the key policymakers in Islamabad wish to see
an end to Indian interest in Afghanistan. This preference that has been
embraced by countries such as China, Germany and Turkey, which take
care to ensure that their international initiatives for that country do
not include participation by Delhi. As for the US and the UK, while both
believe that Pakistan’s support would be boosted by India being kept
out of Afghanistan, neither is willing to risk its warming ties with
Delhi by openly saying so. Of course, every now and again,” experts”
close to the Obama administration (and friendly to the Pakistan
military) such as
Barnett Rubin prescribe both a reduction in India’s involvement in Kabul as well as US and EU diplomacy to get Delhi to move much beyond the status quo in the matter of Kashmir. None of these scholars have fought a democratic election, so they can be forgiven for failing to understand the public consequences of any such “surrender” over Afghanistan and certainly Kashmir.
