January 07, 2006
Why bother about a hotline when you have the media?
Pakistan's Public Relations Officer President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has once again chosen to use the media to announce his latest and greatest solution for the issue over the Indian state of J & K. In an interview with Karan Thapar, he proclaimed that India should move troops out of Srinagar, Baramulla and Kupwara. He then says that he will do what is required to ensure that militants stay quiet. At the same time, he also adds in the disclaimer that he couldn't possibly ensure that not a single bullet would be fired, but that if such a situation arose, Pakistan would co-operate with India in bringing the culprits to book.
Like they say, it is deja vu all over again. Where've we heard this before? Of course, this is just the same old wine in the same old bottle. In September, when India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh met him in New York, Musharraf had apparently tried to get US President George Bush to interfere and sought his help in getting India to agree to move troops out of the same three places, Srinagar, Baramulla and Kupwara.
In yet another show of diplomacy through the idiot box, he invited Manmohan Singh to watch any of the cricket in the India-Pakistan series which got underway today with a tour game. I wonder why he didn't speak to Doordarshan. It'd have at the very least been a nice tagline: Diplomacy through DD. This is obviously in response to the Indian government's invitation last year to Musharraf to watch the cricket series.
The Indian government has not reacted yet. Watch out for their take, on the Ministry of External Affairs website. It is highly unlikely that the reaction will be positive and will point out the fact that the issue of pulling out troops hasn't been raised in any official channel but only through the media. It will also address the issue of an invitation not being offered through the official channels.
Update: The MEA has reacted.
Labels: musharraf, pakistan
Rambled @ 11:40 PM
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1 comment(s)
Perhaps we're waiting for a different type of provocation, i.e. more terrorism in other parts of the country. But he definitely has some gall. Bringing up the same suggestion again, identifying the three districts/towns where terrorists are most likely to be active in.
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