Surendra Kumar

Oct 23, 2011
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Seducing Pakistan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent reference to his Pakistani counterpart, Yousaf Raza Gilani, as a “man of peace” has been greeted with scathing criticism. But it has been on predictable lines. One wonders what harm has been caused by his
reference.
India-Pakistan experts tend to be on the short fuse; as prime-time TV debates show, you utter one soft word about a Pakistani leader, dead or alive, and they pounce on you with the ferocity of a tiger! We all know what happened to L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh when they dared to make some laudatory references to Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

The Gaddafi paradox

After 42 years, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, who seized power in Libya in a bloodless coup d’etat in 1969 and who claimed to have escaped over 4,000 assassination attempts, ran out of time. The curtain has fallen on the longest ruling Arab dictator who lived a life full of contradictions, messianic delusions, eccentricities, unbridled ruthlessness and unfulfilled promises. His downfall carries a stark message for despotic rulers facing their peoples’ anger. It also speaks volumes about the broader objectives of intervention by the US and its allies in sovereign nations in the name of protection of civilian lives and its wider implications.

There are certain immutable laws of military history that repeated attempts at disproving them only end up confirming their veracity.

As a self-confessed hardliner, I must admit that being a part of the team engaged in Indo-Pak Track 2 dialogue has been very interesting.

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