Congress MP's romanticism with ex-Pak dictator is deplorable

It may be also recalled that his persona provided fodder for politics in India.
In 2002, the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly attacked the Pakistani dictatorby calling him 'Mian Musharraf".

New Delhi 

Of course it is deplorable that a former Minister of State for External Affairs and a sittinglawmaker has to call a former Pakistani dictator and chief architect of Kargil misadventurea "real force for peace".

This is exactly what Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, has done.

Former Pakistani president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf passed away in Dubai on Sunday, Feb 5, after a prolonged battle with the rare disease amyloidosis. He was 79.

“Pervez Musharraf, Former Pakistani President, Dies of Rare Disease”: once an implacable foe of India, he became a real force for peace 2002-2007. I met him annually in those days at the 

UN and found him smart, engaging & clear in his strategic thinking. RIP," Tharoor tweeted.

BJP leader and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, "There was nothing like a proper military thrashing for Fatcat Pak dictator Generals to become a force for peace".

In another tweet, Chandrasekhar wrote - "That a former Cong Foreign Min (a party that refused to celebrate Kargil Vijay Diwas till 2010) would think that a Pak General who inflicted terror, a backstabbing conflict and tortured our Soldiers in violation of every International law, would be a "force for peace" - best describes Cong."

Kanwal Sibal, former Foreign Secretary, wrote: "Force for peace? Joke. Avowed using terror groups to pressure India. Obsessed with Kashmir. In 2002 attacked India venomously at the UN. I responded as FS to the press at NY. Terror attacks under him: against Parliament, in Mumbai,Delhi, Bangalore,Varanasi,Hyderabad,Jaipur, Ahmedabad etc."

Gen Musharraf had played double games with the terror issue and protected the likes of Osama bin Laden.While he and his country benefited from US assistance, Musharraf had failed to remedy the structural flawsof the Pakistani economy.

Sharat Sahharwal, former High Commissioner to Pakistan, says in a newspaper article that Musharraf"gave full play to the Pakistan army's animosity against India with the Kargil incursion, of which he wasundoubtedly the chief architect".Musharraf's tenure led to the formation of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. At one point even former PakistanPrime Minister Benazir Bhutto had alleged that Musharraf was plotting to have her killed.

Of course he could be called a 'military strongman' but in politics, he would go down as a forgotten man.

In retrospect, he was born in pre-partition Delhi on August 11, 1943. 

As President he had undertaken a tour of India for the Agra Summit during the stint of Atal Bihari Vajpayee,but the meet could not make much headway due to the general's obsession with Kashmir.

It may be also recalled that his persona provided fodder for politics in India.

In 2002, the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly attacked the Pakistani dictatorby calling him 'Mian Musharraf".

However, Mr Modi later said, "I had to give a befitting reply after Mian Musharraf raised the Gujarat issue in the United Nations. I had never taken his name before that".

ends