Blasting Pakistan: David Cameron in India

There was little doubt that the British Prime Minister David Cameron was playing to his audience. Pakistan was the convenient target of opprobrium before a gathering at the IT major Infosys campus in Bangalore. ‘We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country [Pakistan] is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India or whether to Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world’ (Indian Express, Jul 28).

The reaction from Pakistan was predictably spiky. In Britain, former foreign secretary David Milliband considered the Prime Minister’s ill-chosen words a product of recklessness and unscripted bravado. Rather than ‘straight-talking’, this was an example of a ‘loudmouth’ in action.

In some circles, the mood was even one of depression. The president, Asif Ali Zardari is scheduled to visit Britain shortly. While the timing could have been better, the President will still go, his ears ringing with Cameron’s pronouncements. ‘Obviously, we are saddened by Prime Minister Cameron’s remarks in Bangalore to an Indian audience,’ explained Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit (Reuters, Jul 29). ‘These remarks are contrary to the facts on the ground.’ The inspiration for such misguided observations, according to Basit, lay in the WikiLeaks releases. ‘You can never draw the right conclusions from misguided reports.’

The Pakistanis do have legitimate grievances, not least of all at Cameron’s insistence on the one hand that Pakistan not export terror, while claiming that Islamabad is engaged in no such thing. White men can talk in riddles. Pakistan’s own military forces are taking heavy casualties. Even members of the ISI have been in the firing line, and not for the reasons opponents of the wars in Afghanistan might think. While Cameron admitted that steps have been made by the Pakistani government to rectify the security malaise, he was also keen to point out the sinister links between the ISI and fundamentalist networks it claims to be targeting.

Cameron’s bountiful praise was reserved for his hosts, who are anticipating a closer security partnership. India and Britain had, he insisted, mutual interests. ‘Our interests are your interests – so let’s work together to realise them.’ Britain, like India, was determined that networks such those of Haqqani or Lakshar-e-Taiba, or groups such as the Taliban, should be duly dealt with, prevented and discouraged from launching attacks against the citizens of both states.

The criticism by Cameron, valid in parts, is yet another example of the renewed suspicions about the abilities and loyalties of Pakistan in its security alliance with other countries. Whether it be colourful slander mixed in with a good sampling of truth, leaked or otherwise, the reputation of the Pakistani security system is in tatters. And it did not need Cameron’s exuberance in India or the exploits of a whistle blowing consortium to confirm that.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

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