Opinion
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News Analysis
Need to worry, think and speak about other issues
By Inder Malhotra
What an ironic coincidence it is that Osama bin Laden's last, desperate hideout, being bombed incessantly by the United States-led coalition, should be called Tora Bora. For, this is but a slight variation of ``Tora, Tora'', the war cry with which fighter-pilots of the Japanese Imperial Navy had blasted the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour exactly 60 years and five days ago. The instant description of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as the ``second Pearl Harbour'', it would thus seem, was accurate in more respects than one.
This, however, is by way of introduction to the main point that things in Afghanistan are falling into place more rapidly than was thought possible. The Taliban is history and Osama at the end of his tether. The strategists and pundits who had predicted a long-drawn war and a ``Vietnam- type quagmire'' have fallen into embarrassed silence. Consequently, the time has clearly come for this country and its government to end their overwhelming, indeed all-absorbing, concentration on Afghanistan, and start worrying, thinking and speaking about other developments and issues of concern to them.
As it happened, the Maoist uprising in Nepal did register itself on the official mind in the capital, promptly enough, if only because of its grave and grim implications for India's own security. There were some stirrings also in relation to Bangladesh, especially in the ranks of the ruling BNP, because of indefensible atrocities on the Hindu minority there for which the Government of Begum Khaleda Zia has yet to punish even a single culprit.
For the rest, minds remained riveted on the rugged, war-ravaged land straddling the Hindu Kush. Even the crucial election in Sri Lanka received much less attention than it deserved. But it was at least talked about. By contrast horrific events in West Asia, an area of vital interest to this country, as indeed to the rest of the world, have been strangely underplayed, if not ignored.
To be sure, a week ago, the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, in response to the Opposition's concerted demands, did condemn the Israeli missile attacks on various Palestinian targets. These included a site next door to the office of the Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mr. Yasser Arafat, at Ramallah where he was then working. Mr. Singh also informed the House, of the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's phone call to Mr. Arafat on November 27, but did not explain why it was not publicised earlier. Such calls to the U.S. President and Pakistan's military ruler have been made public immediately. Since then there has been studied silence though far more heinous acts have been committed. Israel has continued to invade Palestinian territory, carried out extra-judicial murders of Palestinian citizens it describes as terrorists leaders, and used its missiles and gunships to kill children, including one, only three years old.
Of course, Israel is retaliating against vile and reprehensible terrorist attacks by suicide bombers in which innocent Israeli youngsters have perished. There is surely a point to the Israeli rage. But were the Palestinian school children that Israeli missiles decimated less innocent than the Israeli victims of terror were? Isn't Israeli retaliation out of all proportion to the provocation offered? The U.S. that earlier used to take this position and urge restraint on Israel has changed its stance and apparently given the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Ariel Sharon, the green light to do what he is doing. But is that reason enough for India also to keep mum?
There are some in New Delhi, in both the corridors of power and the strategic community on the periphery, who argue that although what is happening in the cruelly besieged towns of West Bank is distressing, friendly relations with Israel should preclude open criticism of it. Never mind the killings or even the destruction by the Israeli army of the Palestinian's solitary airport at Gaza. The argument is specious. While friendship and mutually advantageous cooperation with Israel should surely be preserved, there is absolutely no reason to be pusillanimous about the high-handedness and worse on the part of even the best of friends.
The stakes in West Asia are very high quite apart from the utter unacceptability of the level and viciousness of the cycle of vengeance that goes far beyond the doctrine of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The decade-old Oslo Peace Accord, adroitly calibrated by Israel to delay its implementation, is now on the verge of collapse. Sadly, this is exactly what the Government of Mr. Sharon seemingly wants. It also wishes to render Mr. Arafat irrelevant, not realising that this would only add to the power and popularity of Hamas - that was created, ironically, by Israel itself - and Islamic Jihad.
Time was when this country used to be gratuitously unfair and even churlish to Israel while loudly supporting the cause of the Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. To turn that situation on its head would be to compound the error. Both Israel and the yet-to-be formed Palestine State are friends of India. This country must be even-handed to them.
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