President General Pervez Musharraf told a private Indian TV channel NDTV on Tuesday, December 5, that Pakistan would give up its claim over Kashmir if India accepted his "four-point solution" to the long-festering Kashmir disputed between India and Pakistan. Asked whether he was really prepared to give up his country's claim on Kashmir, he reassured the interviewer: "We will have to, yes, if this solution comes up."
This is not the first time Gen Musharraf has made "out of the box" proposals on Kashmir in media interviews. Ever since he toppled the democratically elected government of Nawaz Sharif, he, in all his impetuous urgency, has been spewing out in a rapid-fire mode what the Pakistani Foreign Minister called "endless proposals".
General Musharraf has done this diplomatic drill so often that it has become a well-rehearsed routine.
This is how he does it: he comes up with a novel proposal, presents it in some media interview, preferably in India. He waits India to accept it. India ignores it; makes a demand of some kind; or an unimportant official in India's foreign ministry makes an ambiguous sound. He expects and asks some US or other foreign government to pressure India to accept his proposal. He expresses his frustration at the lack of any response from India or any pressure from US. In frustration makes another proposal, more novel than the previous one which, coincidently, happens to be a little closer to India's position. Same lack of Indian response or US pressure; another Indian pre-condition or demand; or an ambiguous sound. His frustration grows. In desperation he makes another proposal a little more closer to India's position. And the cycle starts all over again.
Now, I believe, he doesn't have to do it any more because his drill has brought his position on Kashmir to coincide with India's position to such an extent that an Indian analyst C. Raja Mohan calls, Musharraf's latest proposal "closest to India's negotiated position". India has dexterously brought, by a combinations of myriad diplomatic maneuvers, Pakistan's position very close to its own without showing its hand or offering any quid pro quo.
Mushahid Hussain Sayed, the ruling Muslim League (PMLQ) general secretary, on Friday said that General Pervez Musaharraf’s recent offer for resolving the Kashmir issue has put the ball in India’s court.
Mushahid should know it is not India's court where General Musharraf has put the ball. He has given it in Manmohan Singh's hands. All he has to do is to run with it.
Musharraf is all set to surrender Kashmir.
The question is why Musharraf in his dual capacity as a chief of army staff and the president is striking at an issue that has been used by the army as its raison d'etre and an excuse for ever increasing defense expenses?
A couple of reasons: the army is so entrenched in every aspect of the civilian, political, and business life of Pakistan that it does not need Kashmir as an excuse any more; greatly improve economic relations with India could help the army retain its position as the dominant power in Pakistan; General Musharraf faces elections next year and would want to present himself as the architect of a new India-Pakistan accord and a statesman.
