Farooq Ganderbali
Fifteen years after what many in his own country call it a ‘grand misadventure’, a former Pakistani army chief, who had usurped power from an elected government in a coup continues to be fixated with Kargil (Jammu and Kashmir). He had ordered his troops to take over the Kargil heights vacated by Indian troops for the winter months in a stealthy operation that he had tried to pass off as an invasion by the Mujahadin. Pervez Musharraf was so keen for the success of his plan to clandestinely take over Kargil that he had reportedly kept his Prime Minister of the day, Nawaz Sharif out of the loop. That this assertion has few takers outside the charmed circle is another story. Perhaps Musharraf wanted to present a surprise gift to Nawaz, who, much to his chagrin, was talking peace and friendship with his Indian counterpart, Atal Behari Vajpayee, at Lahore.
It is well know that Pakistanis are paranoiac about India, always fearful of India inside their minds while outwardly boasting of their unparalleled valour and running down the ‘coward Indians’. Since it was carved out of India in August 1947, Pakistan has launched four attacks on India to wrest Kashmir. The Pakistanis are unable to stomach the fact that on each of the four occasions they had found it impossible to snatch Kashmir from the hands of the ‘coward Indians’ (read Hindus). But, of course, Rawalpindi Shura thinks that on each of these occasions they would have achieved their objective had it not been for Western ‘perfidy’ and Indian ‘cunning’! They cannot see the contradiction: if the Pakistanis are invincible why in the first place do they need outside military help to defeat India?
The installation of Modi government in India has rattled Pakistan. Their politicians and generals have been frequently ‘warning’, which does not worry India unduly despite the comprehensive Chinese patronage that Pakistan enjoys. The threatening noises from Rawalpindi and Islamabad will only ensure that issues like Siachen and Rann of Kutch are no longer ‘low hanging fruits’ to be plucked by India or Pakistan. There will be no incentive for India to unfreeze bilateral talks with Pakistan.
The likes of Musharraf are not willing to accept the hard fact that they are not going to get Kashmir by force. It has probably dawned on some of his contemporaries that lunching a full-scale war against India for that purpose will be disastrous, given the stockpile of nuclear weapons in both countries.
When Musharraf talks about having caught India by its neck in Kargil in 1999, he is only repeating an old and hackneyed script. Indeed, it is not the first time he has said so; this has been his recurring theme from the time of the Kargil war. This kind of bravado boosts the morale and uplifts the low self-esteem of his country. Personally, Musharraf’s spirit cannot be soaring very high when he has to live under the shadows of court cases slapped by the government headed by his bête noire, Nawaz Sharif. He also cannot even leave the country to deliver his anti-India diatribe before bemused audiences. The military can—and has—saved him from the prospect of a severe sentence but it could not facilitate dismissal of cases against him.
There is no love lost between Sharif and Musharraf. In the 1999 coup it was Sharif who was ousted by Musharraf in a bloodless coup following the cessation of war in Kargil. That had made Musharraf, then army chief, seething with anger because he thought Sharif had agreed to a ceasefire with India under US pressure at a time when the Pakistani army was poised to take over Kargil and cut off Indian road connectivity with Jammu and Kashmir. From that stage, it would have been easy for Pakistan to annex the state of Jammu and Kashmir, thus fulfilling a dream of every Pakistani.
After the coup, Musharraf had Sharif banished to Saudi Arabia, where the latter became a special guest of the royals, living in a luxury villa with his entire family and entourage. The Saudi royals have a soft corner for all top Pakistani politicians and generals, having invested so heavily in Pak’s nuclear built up.
Through a strange twist in fortunes, Sharif is back in power, and he has lost little time in launching criminal court proceedings against Musharraf. Among the charges that are slapped on the former dictator was treason which can end with a death sentence. That may be impossible to carry out in a country which has always been ruled directly or indirectly by the military. But with democratic pulse beating in Pakistan, albeit feebly, it would be equally impossible to dismiss overnight all cases against Musharraf.
Even if the cases against him fall, Musharraf has to live with the stigma of being the first Pakistani General to have been prosecuted in a court of law and that is humiliating enough for him. Musharraf has to live through the misfortune of considerable lowering of his image in the eyes of his own people, who otherwise treat serving and retired generals as the most venerated figures. Well, this is an even stronger reason for him to bear a grudge against Sharif.
Just as Sharif thinks that court cases will keep Musharraf tied down and lessen his potential to present himself as a formidable adversary, the former dictator believes that he can pay Sharif back by continuously reminding Pakistanis how Sharif was instrumental in denying Pakistan a sure chance of grabbing Kashmir, the most coveted trophy for all Pakistanis.
Musharraf’s boast about his army overrunning Indian forces in Kargil in 1999 may have riled some Indians, but it should also be seen as his way of drawing attention to Sharif’s ‘treachery’. Musharraf has frequently berated Sharif for running to America with a ceasefire offer when, according to him, the Pakistani army was poised to take over Kargil. The message he is trying to convey is that the people of Pakistan should realise that Sharif is a politician who can barter Pakistan’s interests. It is a tit-for-tat sort of game between Sharif and Musharraf who, ironically, was selected by Sharif himself as the chief of army by overlooking the claims of other generals in the reckoning for the top job.
The game these two important Pakistanis are playing to besmirch the reputation of each other is not likely to end soon. Like any other Pakistani soldier, Musharraf will continue to have hallucinations about India; but he has this additional task of getting even with Nawaz Sharif.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel