Opinion: Forgive Me If I’m Not Crying For Musharraf

How did you sense whilst you heard that General Pervez Musharraf had died? Were you sad? Were you overjoyed? Did you sense a tinge of sorrow and regret? Or did you discover it difficult to govern your jubilation? I’ll let you know how I felt. I virtually could not supply a rattling.

Unlike a few of the reporters and politicians who’ve written or tweeted approximately the General withinside the aftermath of his demise, I by no means virtually met the guy. I became delivered to him at banquets after which attended that infamous breakfast assembly he had with editors all through the Agra Summit. That’s approximately it.

My view of him, judging with the aid of using the entirety I had study earlier than I bodily set eyes on him, became that he became a really dodgy man or woman who ought to by no means be trusted. It is difficult to appearance fondly on a army dictator who seized electricity with the aid of using overthrowing the legally elected authorities of Pakistan and whose leader declare to reputation whilst he became army leader became the sneaky invasion of Kargil. So, I needed to be persuaded to visit Agra and to just accept his invitation for breakfast.

It became most effective whilst we sat down for breakfast that I realised that I became in a minority. Musharraf went across the desk asking Indian editors to inform him what a great chap he became. To my horror, the editors did simply that. They handled him with a lot reverence and sang his praises at such embarrassing duration that even Musharraf regarded surprised. I doubt he might have were given a lot love from editors in his personal united states of america.

Some of it, I suppose, became right all the way down to the Punjabi factor. In that era (however possibly much less so now), many Punjabis trotted out the nonsensical “we’re the equal human beings, yaar,” banalities, lit candles on the Wagah border and believed that jhappi and pappi may want to attain what overseas coverage couldn’t.

That’s the most effective clarification I can discover for my vintage pal Vinod Mehta’s behaviour. “Sir,” he gushed to Musharraf, “I guide you a lot that during India, they name me your guy.”

Musharraf nodded gravely, taking this praise as his due and went directly to the subsequent editor, assured that extra tail-wagging might follow.

It did. And so it went until Prannoy Roy and I spoiled his little party. I stated what I concept became obvious – this guy became the architect of Kargil. Why ought to any Indian accept as true with him now?

Musharraf became barely incredulous that the hitherto unbroken chain of sycophancy have been severed. “Trust, accept as true with?” he bristled. “This query ought to were requested earlier than you invited me here. Not after.”

Worse became to follow (from Musharraf’s factor of view, as a minimum). It became Prannoy Roy’s flip subsequent and he requested some other query that regarded to me to be the important thing to the General’s credibility. Musharraf had spent see you later speakme approximately the needs of the human beings of Kashmir however wasn’t it unusual that he himself had forcibly seized electricity in a army coup, now no longer due to the needs of the human beings of Pakistan?

Prannoy and I broke up Musharraf’s little love fest with Indian editors and the breakfast ended on a bitter note. So did the Agra summit itself, a bit later.

That became the sum overall of my interactions with Musharraf aleven though he stored turning up in conversations with different human beings. When I interviewed Benazir Bhutto (who became then out of electricity), she advised me that once she became Prime Minister, she have been provided with a blueprint of the Kargil operation. She had grew to become it down, she stated, however the guy who had provided the plan became Pervez Musharraf.

Yet human beings persisted to accept as true with Musharraf. When George W Bush got here to the HT Summit, I requested him if he believed that Pakistan became hiding Osama bin Laden. Bush indicated that he did now no longer suppose that Musharraf might do that.

When Manmohan Singh made his first ride to the UN as Prime Minister, he became (in my view, rightly) apprehensive approximately assembly Musharraf. But the wily vintage soldier charmed Singh so absolutely that to my horror, Singh stated, on his manner lower back to India: “General Musharraf is a person we are able to do commercial enterprise with.”

On a next ride to New York, for some other UN session, Manmohan Singh became searching ahead to dinner with Musharraf whilst, to the consternation of the Indian delegation, the General made a combative, strongly anti-Indian speech on the UN. At dinner whilst a shell-taken aback Manmohan Singh requested him approximately the speech, Musharraf waved it away pronouncing it have been written with the aid of using a speechwriter and became of little consequence.

It became difficult to get away the sensation that Musharraf ran circles round Manmohan Singh. Eventually, Singh even positioned his weight in the back of a so-known as Kashmir peace deal that he had labored out with Musharraf. It became staggeringly clear (aleven though now no longer to Manmohan Singh) that now no longer most effective wouldn’t it not by no means paintings however that neither guy might be capable of promote it to the human beings in their united states of america.

The deal did now no longer happen, Musharraf’s role weakened in Pakistan and he misplaced electricity. It emerged that Musharraf have been mendacity to everyone, now no longer simply to quality vintage Dr Singh. He have been hiding Osama all alongside however had persuaded Bush and the worldwide network that he had no concept in which Bin Laden became.

So, given this background, forgive me for now no longer being pushed to tears with the aid of using the information of Musharraf’s demise. I do not purchase the placement many human beings are actually taking – that during his later years, Musharraf became an suggest of peace with India. A guy who spent his existence making plans army operations towards our united states of america and who provided refuge to terrorists and criminals from everywhere in the world (from Osama to Dawood) couldn’t have abruptly became an apostle of peace. Like almost the entirety else Musharraf stated and did, this became additionally an insincere role aleven though his fanatics in India desired desperately to agree with otherwise.

Nevertheless, I do not suppose we ought to glory in his demise or waste our time celebrating his demise. By the time he marched off to fulfill his maker, Musharraf became yesterday’s guy, a discern of no consequence.

And I do not suppose it’s miles the Indian manner to rejoice anyone’s demise. We are (or as a minimum we ought to be) too dignified and too massive a country to sink to that level.

Which is why I commenced with the aid of using pronouncing I virtually failed to supply a rattling after I heard approximately Musharraf’s demise in exile in Dubai. He did his worst. And for some time it labored.

But appearance in which he ended up. Look in which Pakistan itself ended up. And recollect in which we’re now.

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