Kautaliya, a most learned high caste Brahmin, also known as Chanakya or Visnu Gupt was a minister of Chandra Gupt Maurya, the famous Hindu King of ancient India. He wrote a classic treatise on the state craft called the “Arthshashtra”, which is an equivalent of the European work on the subject called the “Prince” written by Machiavelli. This treatise is the most comprehensive and exhaustive work on all aspects of governance, diplomacy, war, and other related things which a ruler must know and follow to ensure success of his rule. The Indian Military Academy uses it as one of the text books in the courses prescribed for the officers trained there. The Indian Government has honoured Kautaliya by naming the diplomatic enclave in New Delhi as Chanakyapuri. It seems President Musharraf has very thoroughly studied both the “Arthshahtra” as well as the “Prince” and is putting in actual practice the guidelines contained in these works. His actions in dealing with the crisis in his country and his diplomatic moves abroad would surely qualify him to be called a “Modern Kautaliya” in a positive sense. Within Pakistan, he has been the only leader who has taken the Sardars, Feudal Barons, Tribal Warlods, and Waderas head on. He has cut most of them to size. He has fixed all the local tribal chiefs in Wazirastan while as at the same time he has entered into an agreement with them for denying shelter to foreign elements belonging to Al Qaeda. Taliban who have the same origin as Pakhtoons could be tolerated. They are indistinguishable from the local residents in the border areas. Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was liquidated in a lightening operation. The General has shown that he is dead serious when it comes to the running of the writ of his Government. He means serious business. Baluchistan did not break away as feared by many within and outside Pakistan. Rather people have started forgetting Bugti who will soon be obliterated from the history. The traditional leaders like “Nawaz Sharief” and “Benazir Bhutto” have been reduced to non-entities. They have no chance of returning or participating in political activities till the General is in command. The fiery religious leaders have been somewhat tamed and are being preached “Enlightened Moderation” and “Progressive Islam”. They too have lost their punch and are unable to inflame the people’s passions like earlier times. Being a trained commando, the General has been able to tackle many fronts at one and the same time. He has made himself indispensable to the West in its fight against Al Qaeda. At the same time he has kept his options open in case of Taliban resurgence to secure his northern flank. He has arrested the economic downslide of Pakistan towards being a failed state and has succeeded in motivating appreciable investments from abroad. The foreign exchange reserves, which had gone as low as a billion dollars have gone up more than a dozen fold. Having realised the basic fact that nothing can work in Pakistan without Army, he has kept it on his right side. He knows that as long as he is in uniform and the Army is in good humour, he can take head on any one and any thing within or outside Pakistan. He is also confident that as long as USA is on his side, he is safe against all odds including from within the Army itself.

In diplomacy, he has no parallel in the entire history of Pakistan. The most recent example is his latest unprecedented and out of the box proposals on Kashmir. The ball is once again in India’s court. The General seems to be using most of the inputs provided in the chapter on covert operations in Arthshashtra. This judicious use of Arthshastra begins with the Kargil Operation when very stealthy the SSG (Special Services Group, an elite commando formation of Pakistan Army) of which he has been a Commanding Officer, occupied the strategic heights overlooking Srinagar-Leh highway. While the operation was going on, Nawaz Sharief was hugging Vajpayee in Lahore! If the Americans had not exerted maximum pressure to force surrender by Nawaz Sharief, the sub-continent could have seen the “Fourth Round” between the two antagonists which would have changed the geography of the area drastically. Musharraf never forgave Nawaz Sharief for this humiliating let down of his brainchild. General has alleged that the Americans threatened to bomb Pakistan to Stone Age after 9/11 if it did not co-operate. It is because of this threat that he had to agree to all their demands in order to save Pakistan. Nawaz Sharief may have received a stronger threat at the time of Kargil Operation as he buckled under much more quickly without getting any thing in return? Agra was one more brilliant coup by the General. He hijacked the entire media and had his view point beamed live all over the world. It was a major diplomatic win for him. After the red carpet treatment given to him by the Indian leaders, they did not expect him to be so blunt and straight forward. They were thrown into a total mess by the anti-climax in which the conference ended. He administered the coup de grace at Kathmandu by extending a hand of friendship to an utterly surprised Vajpayee who had no alternative but to get up in haste to grasp it. It was the most brilliant way of throwing the ball once again in the Indian court, which was seen live by millions of people all over the world. Vajpayee in 2003 stole a march over him by extending his hand of friendship from Kashmir itself, which the General had termed as the “Core Issue” between the two countries. He had no alternative but to grasp it with both hands. Then came the “Confidence Building Measures”, which were agreed and implemented one after the other, even though half-heartedly. On one hand the General was stressing on the centrality of Kashmir problem and the aspirations of the Kashmiris, while as on the other hand he was apparently showing great flexibility in solving this intractable problem. In slow doses he started climbing down from the rigid stance which his country had been following for half a century. First UN Resolutions were given up, total Independence was ruled out, borders were proposed to be made irrelevant, and finally Pakistan was declared to be prepared even to give up total claim on Kashmir, emotionally termed in the past to be its “Jugular Vein”! The strategy seems to be two fold. One is to convert Kashmir from being an issue involving territory to a problem concerning the future of its people. If the people could be offered self-rule under the joint supervision of India and Pakistan, then the claim to the territory could be given up. Secondly, the International Opinion is being shown that Pakistan is offering the extreme and total flexibility in resolving the decades’ old dispute simply in pursuit of world peace. It is India which is being totally unresponsive and intransigent.

The Indian Media is euphoric about General Musharraf being prepared to give up Pakistan claim on Kashmir through his new four point proposals. The proposal is much more complicated than seems on the face of it. First the territory of Kashmir needing a solution has to be identified. This area has to be demilitarised in stages, and forces sent back to garrisons. Self-rule is to be given to the inhabitants of the identified areas and the whole process has to be supervised by a mechanism involving India, Pakistan, and Kashmiris. No doubt the blue print for a way to the ultimate solution is good. The General may be sincere in his approach for peace in the sub-continent but the million dollar question is whether we have the leaders on all sides with the political will to take it forward? For last 59 years in spite of international pressure, both the countries have miserably failed in reducing forces on both the sides of the Line of Control. They have rather increased these to an unprecedented level especially on the Indian side, making these the highest ever in any part of the world in comparison to local population. Best efforts from the Indian Government have failed to make Kashmiris agree for any type of self-rule with autonomy within the constitution of India, which the General now proposes. Finally bringing all the three parties together to supervise such an arrangement seems a utopian dream. It seems the General had been frustrated by his failure to bring a semblance of unity among the politicians heading the freedom struggle in Kashmir. By threatening to out rightly dump them; he may succeed in forging unity among these pro-freedom groups for their very survival and make them intensify their struggle independently. Interestingly all the hardliners as well as some of the moderates from this camp have straight away rejected General’s proposals and some have even denounced him. On the other hand even the mainstream hardliners like Bharatiya Janta Party have rejected these proposals, being Chanakya’s true followers they probably understand these diplomatic moves much better than any body else! The funny part is that most of the regional pro-India parties have welcomed these proposals. This may be to safeguard their own future in the ultimate set up which may emerge as well as have a piece of the final pie. It is very difficult to understand General’s mind. He is not so naïve that he will totally disregard all that he has been saying so far about Kashmir and Kashmiris? Is he totally out of touch with the present situation in Kashmir and is oblivious of the pulse of the people? Or is he being too shrewd and clever and is telling India to sort out the intractable problem with Kashmiris directly on its own (which it will not able to do within its presently declared working contours of within the framework of the constitution of India) while he takes pleasure in watching India’s discomfiture? Well, it is after a long time that Delhi is facing someone on the other side of the border who is sharper than a traditional “Brahmin”. After all he too was born in Delhi itself!