'Isolating Pakistan in South Asia should be our major priority'

Shortly after the end of the Kargil conflict, I had occasion to have lunch with the most dreaded of ISI chiefs, Lt Gen Hamid Gul. Predictably , the conversation turned to Pakistan's Kargil debacle. Gen Gul spelt out his Kashmir ambitions, making it clear that Pakistan would not change course, despite what transpired in Kargil. He averred that Kashmir would be made an issue of the “rights of Muslims“ in India, who would unite to secure Kashmir for Pakistan.
This assertion represents the core of the thinking of Pakistan's Punjabi-dominated military elite.They firmly believe they are inheritors of the Mughal Empire. They believe “devious“ Hindus have denied them their inheritance. They recall Mohammad Ali Jinnah's lament that he got a “moth-eaten Pakistan“, which disregarded his territorial claims that included the whole of Bengal and Punjab -apart from Hyderabad, Junagadh, Bhopal and even Jodhpur.
The army has not yet forgotten the humiliation of 1971 and believes it can engineer the progressive breakup of India through a “lowintensity conflict“. It refuses to accept that respecting religious, linguistic and ethnic diversity can be an enduring basis for national unity . The army's instruction manuals in training institutions focus on how to exploit “vulnerabilities“ in India's body politic.
Within Pa kistan's Punjab, there is little realisation that Punjabi domination led to the birth of Bangladesh. And that it is now leading to growing alienation in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Over 200,000 Pakistani troops are deployed in Balochistan and KP, bordering Afghanistan.
Given their inability to provide recipes for good governance and growth, Pakistan's army and major parties like Imran Khan's Tehriq-eInsaf find India's problems in Jammu & Kashmir an ideal issue to divert public attention. They are convinced that prising Kashmir from India will lead to India's inevitable fragmentation, restoring to them what they believe are the glories of the Mughal Empire. This may seem like pipedreams, but we would go seriously wrong if we do not recognise this reality .
Our military response (overt and covert) to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism leading to the Uri attack should be calibrated, while making it clear to Pakistan that any escalation would only cause it more harm. The remedy for this malady is complex.We should recognise that the Pakistan army has no intention of surrendering its stranglehold on power.
India's policies should ensure that the Pakistan army is discredited in Pakistan and across the world.Balochistan is not the only issue to be raised. The army is also carrying out operations against its own people in KP and Sindh. Put bluntly , it will involve paying the ISI back in its own coin.
Isolating Pakistan in South Asia should be our ma jor priority . The next Saarc summit is scheduled in Islamabad in November. India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have already lowered their level of participation in Saarc events in Islamabad. The three countries should retain this solidarity on their participation in the Islamabad summit and even consider boycotting it.
We can now promote regional economic cooperation in South Asia, excluding Pakistan, through forums like BIMSTEC, which brings together our eastern Saarc neighbours, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, with Myanmar and Thailand. We have the beginnings of a trilateral transit partnership to our west comprising India, Iran and Afghanistan.
After 911 and the terrorist attack in California involving Pakistani nationals, there is resentment in the US against Pakistan. It is clear that irrespective of who wins the race to the White House, sympathy for Pakistan is waning in the US, as it is in the UK and the EU.There has to be a relentless diplomatic campaign to build on this sentiment.
The writer is a former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan