Our October 1983 cover

In Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf is facing the first real threat to his rule. Musharraf had hoped to push through his agenda and reinstall himself as president and army chief but overplayed his hand. His decision to suspend Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has backfired. Rallies supporting Chaudhry have attracted thousands. When the General tried to prevent a rally in Karachi, violence broke out and a city always on the edge went up in flames again.

In Sri Lanka, the tenuous ceasefire between the Government and the LTTE all but dissolved in the wake of the Tigers’ air raids on Colombo. The raids did not cause heavy casualties but the government is on the spot again.

In Bangladesh, the Battle of the Begums—Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina—has created a deadlock and brought both the military and the hardline fundamentalist parties into the picture again. In Nepal, all is not well even though the rule of the monarch has been superseded by a parliament and the Maoists rebels have joined the Government. The Maoists have not disarmed completely and the danger of them trying to destabilise the Government is real.

As the heat is turned up all over South Asia, India’s role in the region is in sharp focus. Often accused of playing big brother, India will now have to tread carefully, but tread into troubled waters it must. Even if we are not on the best of terms with our prickly neighbours to the west, India knows that a stable Pakistan benefits it. The peace talks and CBMS may slow down, but they must not stop.

In Sri Lanka, the Indians have to be careful about how they position themselves in that debate. Despite the clamour from the Tamil parties, India cannot afford the LTTE taking over Lanka nor can they be entirely supportive of the Government’s hard line. Pushing for a better devolution package and the continuation of talks is India’s best option.

Our cover story this week was put together by Managing Editor Raj Chengappa, who has just received the Karnataka Media Academy Award for eminence in national journalism, and Associate Editor Saurabh Shukla. We tapped journalists Hasan Zaidi in Karachi, Christine Jayasinghe in Colombo, Inam Ahmed in Dhaka and Tilak Pokharel in Kathmandu for the view from the ground.

India now has to pull off a tricky balancing act between being overly proactive and merely reactive. If we are to take our place on the high table of nations, be thought of as a world leader among democracies, then India must ensure that it plays a part in making sure its neighbours are able to put out their fire.

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