Indian National security adviser (NSA) Shivshankar Menon has briefed Indian diplomats that India may have a record number of terrorist infiltrations from Pakistan. Briefing Indian heads of missions (HoMs) here, Menon told them that terrorism from Pakistan was a never-ending affair, but despite this, India needed to engage with different quarters in that country, even as New Delhi enhances its own security proactively.
The NSA’s assessment of Pakistan matched the home ministry’s briefing to Indian diplomats. But these were at variance with the ministry of external affairs’ take on India’s ties with Pakistan. Foreign minister S M Krishna gave a fairly positive spin to the Pakistan relationship, describing it as a “democracy”.
Giving an account of his recent visit to Islamabad for talks with his counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, Krishna felt a new atmosphere in Pakistan and is confident that the relationship was on the upswing. Pakistan, he said, wanted to take steps forward. On the question of whether the powerful ISI and Pakistani Army was on the same page as the civilian government there, Krishna said, he believed that if the civilians were moving forward with India it would have the “blessings” of the military.
But these were very different from the home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s assessment. In his speech to the diplomats, Shinde explained the different ways in which Pakistan continued to foment terrorism inside India. These included infiltration, a growing fake Indian currency network, sleeper cells of terror groups, luring Indians to terror training camps to carry out terror attacks.
Analysts said the Diplomats listening to the top levels of policymaking in the government would be forgiven for believing that the establishment was speaking in different voices. But though there is almost no one willing to bet that Pakistan had given up terrorism against India, there is an understanding that India needed to engage with some of the main players in Pakistan.
