From India’s experience

Letter November 27, 2010
After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, India gave up the policy of funding and training insurgents for good.

PUNE, INDIA: In his article of November 27 “The India-Pakistan cul-de-sac”, air vice-marshal Shahzad Chaudhry writes about India’s support to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, but doesn’t talk about its disastrous effects on India itself. Rajiv Gandhi, ill-advised by his aides, trained and funded the Tigers to create unrest in Sri Lanka and when the same Tigers went out of control of Indian hands, Mr Gandhi sent the Indian army to tackle them. It was a classic case of a Frankenstein monster going out of control and biting the hand which had been feeding it.

After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, India gave up the policy of funding and training insurgents for good. India eventually learnt its lessons but Pakistan doesn’t seem to have learnt anything from the disastrous Indian experience.

Sonam Shyam

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2010.