by Firoze Hirjikaka

Created on: December 29, 2008

At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I cannot help feeling that India has been outmaneuvered by Pakistan
with relation to the Mumbai terror attacks, on both diplomatic and military fronts. Right from the start of the Mumbai crisis, the Indian government has put all its eggs in one basket and paid the price for it. It relied on international pressure to bring Pakistan

to heel.

This has failed miserably. Pakistan
has skillfully diverted world attention towards a potential conflict between itself and India. The Mumbai attacks have been relegated to little more than a footnote. This loss of initiative can be blamed to a large extent on the Indian authorities. The perennial ailment of our ministers and bureaucrats is procrastination. The saying "strike while the iron is hot" is alien to them.

Consider the facts. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, international support was solidly behind India. World leaders were shocked and outraged particularly because their nationals were among the victims. There was tremendous pressure on Pakistan
to take urgent action against the terror camps inside their country. The FBI and Interpol landed on our doorstep, eager to help.

And what did India
do? Our Foreign Minister made a belligerent speech in Parliament, at the same time that the Prime Minister was assuring the world community that India
was not contemplating military action against Pakistan.
India wanted the United States
to reprimand its client state. In other words, we acted like a child who has been slapped and runs to his mother for succour. While the US
Secretary of State was talking tough to Pakistan, in truth America
was terribly worried that Indian saber rattling would give Pakistan
an excuse to pull troops away from the Afghanistan
border which, in turn, would be a big blow in the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The Indian government obligingly reassured America
that it need not worry.

India's leaders will no doubt justify their dithering on the grounds that their nation behaved like a mature democracy. They are too nave to appreciate that in the real world, diplomatic niceties will always take a back seat to national interest. Pakistan, of course, had no such compunctions. By ratcheting up the war hysteria, it cleverly played upon American apprehensions. The end result is there for all to see. The Mumbai attacks have all been taken off the agenda; and the entire focus is on preventing an India-Pakistan conflict. And now that that Pakistan
has achieved its objective,

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