There are apprehensions in India about the vacuum created by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s resignation. After all, India and Pakistan enjoyed an upswing in bilateral ties when the general was at the helm. Over the last decade, there have been several confidence-building measures, such as bus and train services, resumption of bilateral cricket series and the presidential pardon granted to Indian prisoner Kashmir Singh. Musharraf, with his hold over the army and ISI, had also ensured that infiltration across the border was largely reduced. But it would be a mistake to attribute all the positives to the beleaguered general. All these developments are just the apparent benefits of the global war on terror. Musharraf’s reign has, at best, been a mixed legacy. One mustn’t forget that the Pakistani leader, who hogged the limelight during the Agra Summit, also master-minded the Kargil war. The man who claimed to promote the ‘true essence of democracy’ worked out a deal with one leader charged with corruption and stone-walled another’s return to Pakistan, despite a court order in his favour. Musharraf was always an unreliable ally. He chose to forsake the Taliban government propped up by the Pakistani army when the US launched its war on terror. Later, he struck deals with militants in the tribal regions of Pakistan who were attacking US troops in Afghanistan.
Now India must stop worrying about Pakistan’s stability and engage the civilian leadership to push bilateral ties forward, which have been strained following the bomb blasts in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka. Pakistan’s efforts to internationalise the Kashmir issue following the Amarnath land allocation fiasco has also not helped matters. As far as the general is concerned, he has honed his survival instincts well. He sacked the judiciary and imposed emergency to stick to power. And when the odds did not favour him, he chose the safest way out.