Calibrate Response to Pakistan
India and Pakistan have scheduled talks at foreign secretary levels by end of this month in New Delhi. The timing of talks, coming as it did after visit of John Kerry, Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee of USA, makes one suspect the US pressure on India to talk at the behest of Pakistan. India has always maintained that there can not be talks without substantial progress on 26/11 trials in Pakistan and action against perpetrators of the crime. USA and Pakistan now know for sure the involvement of state actors and not just nonstate actors as was initially claimed by Pakistan. One thing is certain that US is more concerned obviously about their own game plan in AfPak, in which India is only a marginal player though on the receiving end of terrorist activities. Pakistan has made mockery of all the evidences produced by India and has never had any intentions to give up terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Over last decade or so application of terrorism as state policy has gone deep into DNA of Pakistan and the world has been watching just helplessly. India had requested US to permit interrogation of David Coleman Headley, which was declined. It is quite possible that Pune blast may have been avoided if we had access to Headley. It is obvious that terror outfits involved in Mumbai attack are again involved in Pune. This brings into focus certain aspects of IndiaPakistanUSA relationship. First is that sharing of intelligence inputs between India & US should be institutionalized in a way that would give preemptive edge to security forces for proactive responses in both the countries. Second is that Pakistan is unlikely to heed anytime to Indian inputs of intelligence on terror activities except for altering their tactics based on our feedback to successfully strike at will. They have done so in the past and can be depended upon to repeat anytime. Third is that Pakistan is at proxy war with India while India is still talking about “Talks”. Time has come now for India to be firm in our approach both with US and Pakistan based on our own agenda and priorities. We do not have to sacrifice for the sake of US agenda on AfPak unless of course it is in our overall interests. We have firmly articulated our determination about no talks without action by Pakistan on terror. So when we suddenly softened our stand and agreed to schedule talks at foreign secretary levels, it gave impression of succumbing to US pressures. However, gradually the corrections set in with statements like foreign secretaries can talk about composite issues but we will focus on terror. This is as if foreign secretaries do not represent