Musharraf's American Odyssey - A Wake-Up Call for India

While I was channel-surfing as usual the past week I happened to catch one common story on every channel day-in and day-out - the visit of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf! For that week it seemed to be the story every journalist wanted to cover, every channel wanted to air and as a result Musharraf was given significant time on national television during primetime to boast and brag.

Traditionally speaking, the Indian media usually glorifies and hypes the attention or coverage given to the visit of an Indian head of state or a top government official to the United States. It seems to me that in India the attention given by the American press to the visit of any foreign government official or diplomat is used as a yardstick or benchmark to sort of guage the proximity and tone of relationship of that country enjoys with the US and a general importance and role in global affairs/politics. Evaluating with these factors, this visit of the General has made the cut by miles and should send the Indian press into a frenzy scrambling for reaction and igniting a debate.

After having watched these news stories for hours I could sense one thing for sure - it was as if the words 'Pakistan', 'General Pervez Musharraf' and 'America's most key ad critical ally on the war on terror' were synonymous. They made it sound like America is totally dependent on Pakistan and its actions for internal security and controlling terrorism in general. This American perspective is definitely not good for India both in the short and long run.

For a long time we've heard the cliched statement that Indo-US and US-Pak. relationship's are two mutually exclusive events and are independent of each other - but, in reality we do realize it's not true as in this case. After yet another bomb blast somewhere in India in the forthcoming months, if the Indian government does manage to demonstrate a Pakistani involvement in the same - the world would not really care and listen up rather it would just second Pakistan's latest claim that 'India is a cribber.' By that time Musharraf's clout in the international community would have increased considerably as he continues to sell ideas such as 'his intelligence is working to foil terrorist attacks' and get better at casting a spell over the world leaders with his whimsical fancies.

Musharraf's dynamic character and personality has undergone a significant and obvious transformation over the years from that of a tyrant general who engineered a perfect coup that overthrew a government to a well-respected statesman in the world. He is actually doing a great job of projecting an image of his land being a crusader against terrorism for I believe the gospel truth is that it still is the place where the concept of terror germinates, is nurtured and flourishes.

As always this is some good food for thought and I hope that the Indian diplomats get back to work and search for new ideas to counter this neighbor's new and attractive PR campaign.