Posted on 01/16/2011 10:39:43 AM PST by James C. Bennett
NEW DELHI: Everything is going right these days for India, except for one big problem: It is living next to a Pakistan that is coming apart politically, and Indian leaders insist with a tone of resignation that there's nothing they can do about it.
Starting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, top Indian officials know that their booming democracy is endangered by the growing chaos across the border in Pakistan.
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Welcome to the world's most dangerous zero-sum game. The sad fact is that India and Pakistan, separated at birth in 1947, are locked in what seems like a blood feud. You hear the same language of suspicion in prosperous New Delhi that you do in embattled Islamabad.
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The Indians watch Pakistan's political instability with grim resignation. The root problem, they argue, is that the Pakistani military is unwilling to sever its links with Islamic terrorists. Until the Pakistanis break this insurgency, they will be at its mercy. Dialogue with India won't make any difference, they insist.
"The last thing we want to see is Pakistan slide into instability," says one top Indian official, but he cautions that there is little that India or America can do. "It's Pakistan's internal problem. And that, we can't fix."
As India celebrates its own economic success, there is a slight tone of South Asian schadenfreude about Pakistan's troubles. "There is one school of thought that says, 'If they [the Pakistanis] are committing suicide, then you don't have to murder them,'" the top official concedes. "But the consequences of that are horrible."
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"You have to recognize that some problems can't be solved," counsels one prominent Indian. Officials here don't want American mediation, and they think outreach to Pakistan won't do any good. Meanwhile, the South Asian tinderbox keeps on getting hotter.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
A weak pakistan is both good and bad for india. Good in the long run since a weak economy will prevent pakistan from projecting power. but bad in the short term because there will be the possibility of more terrorists.
I doubt India wants to project even the slightest inclination of involvement in Pakistan. The reality behind the scenes I’m sure is quite different.
India is scared of Paki’s nukes falling into the hands of the Taliban, pure and simple.
Don’t forget about China. China is an ally of Pakistan, and will become even more of an ally in the future. We will become closer to India. China is troubled by the warming between India and the US, and an unstable Pakistan is a thorn in the side of India, much like North Korea is to South Korea.
The Pakis have nukes. Weak economy won't improve that part of the picture.
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