Manmohans blunder

Words need to be carefully chosen by a leader. When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a statement that the dialog with Pakistan & terrorism will not be linked, it created a furor in the parliament. Very much expected. For once, opposition protested meaningfully. Not protested, it pounced and probably even staged a walkout. The statement in its literal sense has harmed India's standing. Whats more, it even furthered Pakistani agenda. How could Indian diplomats, considered one of the finest, goof up in such a matter of international significance?

The PM was quick to clarify his stand. For a while, the Congress leadership distanced itself from the statement and he found himself alone. In essence, what he meant was that he was trying to decouple the issues, so that each one can be dealt with separately. Pakistan, it means, tries to link terrorism with talks, which is the reason, there is never any progress in the talks. Because, the extremist support to terrorism never subsides. In fact it increases with each passing day. He probably wanted to create a division between the elements who support terrorism within the Pakistani establishment and the ones who favor getting rid of the extremists. If the two remain coupled, it will be difficult to hold talks and quantify and hence qualify Pakistan efforts to tackle terrorism, if any, in the post 26/11 South East Asia.

However, what happens inside the country is manageable. What happens outside is not. Opposition party literally means of opposite views and it is doing its job at the end of the day. However, Pakistan has every incentive to misread the misunderstand the statement. Foreign policy and credibility don't really depend on what the facts are, but what seem to be the facts to the outside world. In such a scenario, it will be very difficult to gain an upper edge in any talks, whenever they happen. In doing so, Manmohan has weakened his own position and strengthened Pakistani prime ministers position inadvertently.

Words are precious and statement once made is made. Words in foreign relations, should be chosen very carefully. They have a habit of coming back haunting later.