Musharraf and his one night stand

In the name of God just go Like a pimple that just doesnrsquot go away General Musharraf reappears with exasperating frequency He is invited to grace seminars in Delhi gives interviews on TV channels whereu00a0Mr TwoFace spews venom against India and the very next moment gushes that he is the one and only person who can deliver peace between India and Pakistan Of course he single handedly almost resolved the sixdecade old Kashmir dispute That is if you believe him AND many of our own commentators who have bought that line swallowed it digested it and worse regurgitate it ad nauseam How can they I wonder A man who is seen as the betrayerinchief by his own countrymen a pathetic army general who lost Pakistan yet another war who forsook the political leadership of his country who is an accused in the assassination of a former Prime Minister who has been shown up as a liar by Pakistanrsquos biggest strongest and most generous ally America who spares no opportunity to bad mouth India and Indians who peddles lies like it is cotton candy General Pervez Musharraf has been shown up as a liar by Pakistanrsquos biggest strongest and most generous ally America Our former army chiefs retired generals and wise hacks are quick to give him and his ilk the benefit of doubt Musharraf boasts about the Kargil operation ldquoHamey fakr hai kii humne dushman Indian ke 1700 soldiers mareyrdquo About casualties on the Pakistani side because of his foolhardy military operation he says very nonchalantly ldquoYahii kuch teen sau sava teen saurdquo Just like that He doesnrsquot even remember how many of his soldiers died That too when many bodies were left unclaimed in India simply because he didnrsquot want to admit they were his own What kind of a military commander is this And yet General retired V K Singh finds something worthy of admiring in General Musharraf ldquoAs far as General Musharraf is concerned I would like to put it in two ways One as a military commander I would commend General Musharraf for coming 11 km inside Indian territory to stay with his troops for a night It is the courage of a military commander that he came so far knowing that there was dangerrdquo The retired Army Chief now budding politician was referring to a Pakistani TV show in which a senior retired officer of Pakistan Army said that Musharraf had stayed for a night inside Indian territory with his troops before the Kargil war erupted in 1999 This claim was denied by General Musharrafrsquos spokesperson Major General retired Rashid Qureshi who said ldquoSuch claims are baseless and nonsenserdquo and that Colonel retired Ashfaq Hussainrsquos remarks ldquoabout General Musharraf crossing over the LoC were nothing but preposterousrdquou00a0 General Musharraf himself has dismissed Ashfaq Hussain as being of unsound mind saying ldquosab bakwas hairdquo But our chaps could not or do not want to wait for the lies on that side of the border to rise and show up as false propaganda Instead we are waiting for twists from there because we love to outrage And twist General V K Singh did not even wait for our armyrsquos reaction to the claim He assumed it to be true He went on to question the Indian army which supposedly allowed Musharraf to enter and exit at will More selfflagellation happened in the next 24 hours Experts surmised that it was indicative of Indian intelligence failure that General Musharraf entered and spent one glorious night in Indian soil when we were at war Heck Hostilities hadnrsquot even started in Kargil then and his own people are saying that Musharraf hadnrsquot entered Indian territory This desire on our part to bring about moral equivalence with Pakistan is so great that we start seeing parallels between their army and ours We draw parallels between their media and ours between their civil society and ours But wait it gets worse Our writers thinkers and strategists are disbelieving of spokespersons of the government and defence forces which is understandable It is a good practice to verify everything But what is certainly not acceptable is that we are quick to believe concocted statements emanating from Pakistan just because our official spokespersons donrsquot necessarily react to every comment or charge that comes from Pakistan And frankly this is largely restricted to Pakistanobsessed Delhi columnists mea culpa bureaucrats and uberdeshbhakts For others this entire fracas over another Pakistanioriginfulmination is like rude and loud honking at a STOP signal Just go away will you Smita Prakash is Editor News at Asian News International You can follow her on twitter smitaprakashu00a0