Rare admission

We are so accustomed to conspiracy theories, accusations and charges of all kinds being whipped around and tossed along by the breeze that we have learnt in many cases to simply accept these as lies, intended to manipulate the way we think and form opinions. But in some cases, it appears that the suspicions voiced by the powers that-be in the country may not be entirely ill-founded. While Pakistani officials, both civilian and military, have for years been complaining of Indian action in the country from across the Afghan border, few have been willing to believe what was said, putting this down as an effort to shift blame.



But a new video, placed on a video-sharing website, appears to strongly endorse Pakistan’s views. In a 2011 talk, US Senator Chuck Hagel, while speaking at an American university, had said in plain words that India was ‘financing’ problems for Pakistan, on various fronts, from the Afghan side of the border. Mr Hagel is, of course, President Barack Obama’s nominee for defence secretary, replacing Leon Panetta. He is thus set to occupy a key post. As would be expected, strong denial of the whole affair has poured in from India, which has refuted all that Mr Hagel has said and questioned the remarks from a man it terms a ‘friend’. This, of course, can only be expected. Mr Hagel’s comments are highly embarrassing for a country which, self righteously claims, is strongly opposed to terror and seeks only regional peace.

The video though is immensely significant. It lays down before us strong proof that the US-India-Afghanistan-Pakistan quadrilateral has many awkward angles, and that Islamabad has every reason to fear New Delhi’s influence in Kabul, even more so after the 2014 US pull-out. This fear, of course, drives policy goals at home. It is in many ways a highly positive development that things are now out in the open and laid out on the table. This may just make it easier to see Pakistan’s concerns in a new light, and more importantly still, move internationally to address them in a proactive manner for the sake of South Asian harmony as a whole.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2013.