General Kayani all bluff and bluster

The New Indian ExpressFirst Published : 06 May 2011 11:02:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 07 May 2011 12:21:16 AM IST

Pakistan’s army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s rhetoric against the US and India should be seen in the context of the body blow he suffered when the US raided Osama bin Laden’s hideout. Now it is as clear as daylight that the Pakistani army had no clue about the raid until after the raiders had taken away Laden’s bullet-ridden body. That the hideout was close to an army establishment at Abbottabad raises questions about the army’s state of preparedness. What has been smashed is the common man’s faith in its capability to safeguard Pakistan’s sovereignty. None of its famed F16 aircraft and radars could detect, let alone intercept, the intrusion by the US forces.


If anything, the raid has exposed the Pakistani army as a force that cannot even protect its air and land space. In a country where the army remains the only ‘credible’ institution, Kayani knows only too well how the US operation has dented its image. His statement warning the US and India against any such adventure can only be described as ‘sound and fury that signify nothing’. The US has already clarified that, if necessary, such raids would be repeated. Given this background and the US capabilities, the General will have few takers when he warns the US. However, he knows India is a different ball game, for there is a large constituency in Pakistan that can be energised simply by anti-India rhetoric.

Though US President Barack Obama does not consider US’ 9/11 comparable to India’s 26/11, they are identical in the sense that their masterminds had found a safe haven in Pakistan. It is a different matter that while the US pursued the brain behind 9/11 to his lair at Abbottabad, India has only been pleading with Pakistan to bring to justice those who planned and executed the Mumbai 26/11 attack. If India has not resorted to hot pursuit, it does not mean it has no right to do so. Kayani’s unwarranted pot-shots at India should serve as a warning to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who reads too much into the bonhomie on the cricket field to conclude that India-Pakistan relations are at a take-off stage.