Click to play videoAt the Chief Minister's conference in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid India's cards squarely on the table. There is no doubt anymore that Pakistan harbours terrorists and uses terrorism as a bargaining ploy, said the Prime Minister. Manmohan Singh also asked the international community to isolate Pakistan.
"Some countries like Pakistan have in the past encouraged and given sanctuary to terrorists and other forces who are antagonistic to India. Terrorist attack in Mumbai in last November had clearly been carried out by a Pakistan-based outfit, the Lashkar-e-Toiba. On the basis of investigations, there is enough evidence to show that given the sophistication and the military precision of the attack, it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan," said Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.
But with such damning evidence in hand and the world community watching, what does India do to get Pakistan to get tough with the perpetrators of terror?
"We must convince the world community that the states that use terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy must be isolated and compelled to abandon such tactics," Singh added.
While India offers tons of evidences, Pakistan turns a Nelson's eye and conveniently refuses to read the writing on the wall. Frustrated by Pakistan's refusal to act on terror group, India has tried every method in the diplomatic books. While refusing to launch a military offensive on the lines of Israel, India continues to invoke international support which achieves little to tame an errant Pakistan.
What can India do over and above mere diplomatic overtures to tackle terror emanating from the neighbourhood?
CNN-IBN’s show Face The Nation debated: Is the Government running out of options in dealing with Pakistan? Congress Spokesperson and MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Strategic Affairs Analyst, Sushant Sareen and MP and Spokesperson of BJP Ravi Shankar Prasad took part in the debate. The discussion was moderated by CNN-IBN's Senior Editor Sagarika Ghose.
India lowering the bar everyday?
The more evidences India presents, the options fall further. Pakistan is still in complete denial and therefore is it the end of the end of the road?
"The last month witnessed a blitzkrieg of international diplomacy, the likes of which you have never seen earlier. You can call it coercive diplomacy or call it effective diplomacy. There is certainly a great amount of international pressure on Pakistan which I would beg you not to underestimate," said Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Singhvi believes that international ostracism, building pressure and looking down is a very potent force. He also added that this was being done with India still retaining the options to act as it may deem fit.
India was only clarifying its stand and efforts for the world to see, thereby nullifying hostile elements that otherwise act against it, said Singhvi.
While shaming Pakistan before the international community, India was avoiding impulsive, knee-jerk and emotional reaction, said Singhvi.
Sagarika pointed out Pakistan's indifference to India's dossier of evidences against the terror breeding hubs brings things back to square one. With a threat to present a counter dossier, Pakistan has nullified India's efforts to seek justice. But Singhvi believed that Pakistan is now seen as a country with the 'ostrich in sand' kind of attitude and that this vision will open further options for India.
Strategy: Shame Pakistan?
Focus of the Government's strategy seems to embarrass Pakistan. Strategic Affairs Analyst Sushant Sareen felt that that is not the apt way to term India's stand. The barbarians who perpetrated terror in Mumbai will now see phoney options gone and will watch India exercising real option.
But there seem to be no leveraging in India's favour as Pakistan is still in a mode of denial. Sareen felt that after 25 years of relentless terror unleashed by Pakistan, India may now try different options. Now it can try using economic, overt, military and many other 'real' options.
It is true that India has won international praise for its restraint following the Mumbai terror attacks.
Sagarika mentioned a post in the New York Times praised India's restraint and even suggested that Israel can learn a thing or two from India.
But BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad was unimpressed and pointed out that the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan has had the cheek to criticise the Indian Prime minister and say that he does not have full facts.
But Prasad also expressed joy that Manmohan Singh had spoken clearly and openly about Pakistan's agenda to bleed India with a hundred cuts.
The road ahead
Prasad suggested that the Indian government must first get ISI branded officially as a terrorist organisation. The second option is that India must milk its bonhomie with America by choking its funding to Pakistan, more so since it is amply clear that the Pakistani government and state is funding the terror outfits.
Sagarika tossed the option to Singhvi as a part of the ruling coalition. But with the audio link to Singhvi briefly fading, it was Sareen who was asked if India is really imprisoned by its global aspirations and pretensions? Did its international relations seal its roads to go the Israel way and attack the terror outfits that hurt its interests?
Sareen felt that the seat at the diplomatic high table with powers like the US is not the real chain that binds India's freedom to act.
He pointed out that it is a fact that in India, an attitude of pacification or a perverted version of so-called Gandhian non-violence restrains us. The fact is that India's restraint is taken as weakness.
Singhvi vouched for the civil, calibrated response as the strong way ahead. Also, it is premature on anyone's part to assume that India is attempting only diplomatic options.
India claims international sympathy, Pakistan yet rhetorical
But what use the diplomacy when it cuts no ice with out 'partner' in the fight against terror? Pakistani High Commissioner to UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan had refused to believe that the lone captured terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab is Pakistani. He had pointed out that since Kasab's confession statement is in Hindi, a language not spoken in Pakistan, Kasab is not a Pakistani.
External Affairs Minister of State Anand Sharma had said that Pakistan may deny but the international community trusts India.
But since diplomacy and rhetoric is not working, should India just swallow its ego and say yes to Pakistan's offer for a joint investigation?
Prasad warned and pleaded that it was a trap best avoided. "There are three things India can do straight away," said Prasad. "Stop all peace initiatives. Stop all trade relations. Make the Pakistanis feel hurt by feeling the pinch where it hurts the most," he added.
India must stop using terms like 'elements in Pakistan', 'non-state actors', Prasad suggested. He clearly pointed out that the terrorist attack on the scale in which it happened would not have been possible if there was no state patronage.
Singhvi denied that his government was giving Pakistan a kid-glove treatment. Stopping medical facilities or trade cannot be done at a press of a button and also it is a government decision, not his own discretion, declared Singhvi.
He added that the top echelons of government had told Pakistan that the so-called 'state actors' do not fall from nowhere. The Pakistani government must deal with the perpetrators of terror on its soil. India believed in a multi-pronged attack that includes social, political, economic and diplomatic actions.
While we are on India's diplomatic rallying, one cannot help but wonder what purpose would Home Minister P Chidambaram's US visit serve as power will shift from the current President George W Bush-led Republican government to the president-elect Barack Obama-led Democratic government.
Singhvi pointed out that there is no political vacuum in a mature democracy like US and India. He pointed out that there are continuities and that there will be continuity of diplomatic actions.
But Sareen warned against putting all the eggs of hope in one US basket. Actions do not happen in minutes and the fight with the terror enemy is a long drawn out one.
Rounding off the debate, Sagarika pointed out that India really seemed to have no options on dealing with Pakistan. The fight against terror should not be a war on Muridke and Muzaffarabad but should instead be on our own efficiency, our own apathy and our won bureaucratic red tape. We have to improve our systems and keep ourselves safe.
Final SMS/Web poll: Is the Indian Government running out of options in dealing with Pakistan?
Yes: 86 per cent
No : 14 per cent
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