SPEAKING on his visit to neighbouring India, British prime minister David Cameron launched the strongest British criticism yet of Pakistan, warning that the country could no longer “look both ways” by tolerating terrorism while demanding respect as a democracy. It also warned Pakistan that it would not be permitted to export terrorism to other countries including Britain, Afghanistan and India. His comments were milk and honey to the audience in Bangalore, where he was trying to play to the gallery and also gain access to Indian markets. He signed a contract worth half a billion pounds for British Aerospace 57 Hawk trainers, which would only protect 200 jobs in Britain since the trainer jets would be assembled in Bangalore. Touched to the quick, Pakistan’s Foreign Office took exception to the crude comments and warning to its ally in the war against terror Pakistan. What made the comments more undiplomatic, heartless and crass was that Mr. Cameron, displayed total insensitivity and feigned oblivion to the fact that he was addressing an Indian audience. Pakistan and India have gone to war thrice, have the festering sore of the Kashmiri issue left unresolved by the British when they partitioned the Sub-Continent. Indian troops continue to massacre innocent Kashmiris, plot and launch terror attacks against Pakistan from neighbouring Afghanistan and refuse to even enter into a dialogue for peace. Adam Smith, in his book “The Wealth of Nations” (1776), rightly described Britain as “a nation that is governed by shopkeepers”. The Daily Mail finds that David Cameron has not come out of that “traders’ syndrome” and is bent upon selling the soul of Britain for a few measly pounds. Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s High Commissioner in London, suggested that the Prime Minister had made a mistake because he was inexperienced. He told the BBC he hoped Mr. Cameron’s comments were a “slip of the tongue” and “not a meant slight by him”. Giving him concessions, he said: “I hope he will make amends and pacify the people of Pakistan as well as the government of Pakistan because it has been taken here very adversely, people are really hurt.”
Unfortunately, The Daily Mail is appalled that David Cameron retaliated by launching a strong defence of his attack on Islamabad in which he claimed that elements of the Pakistani state are responsible for exporting terrorism abroad. Amid deep anger in Pakistan, the prime minister said he would always talk “frankly” to Britain’s friends as he insisted he had caused no offence and had not blamed the Islamabad government for promoting terrorism. Back in Britain too, saner elements questioned Cameron’s lack of sensitivity, which can sabotage the war against terror by antagonizing Pakistan unnecessarily and depending more on unsubstantiated wikileaks reports rather than taking cognizance of the thousands of Pakistani lives sacrificed in the war against terror. David Miliband, the shadow Foreign Secretary, attacked Mr. Cameron, saying there was a “big difference between straight talking and being a loudmouth”, and claimed the Prime Minister had been “going off script” in recent public statements. The former Foreign Secretary said everyone had “two ears and one mouth” and it was important to use them “in that proportion” when it came to foreign policy. Even in New Delhi, Mr. Cameron received a snub when he left India without seeing Sonia Gandhi, President of the Congress Party, and her son Rahul, a likely future prime minister, after a planned meeting was called off on Wednesday night. Definitely David Cameron has a lot to learn in the art of statesmanship. Politicians across the divide have condemned the British Prime Minister’s callous comments, coming on the day Pakistan lost 152 lives in a tragic plane crash and nearly every home has suffered losses of near and dear ones in the war against terror. Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab and a leading Pakistani businessman himself angrily retorted: “Desperate to sell £700m Hawk jets and nuclear technology [to India], Mr. Cameron sank to his knees. Mr. Blair came grovelling after 9/11 to Pakistan for help against the Taliban; now Mr. Cameron accuses us of duplicity.”The Daily Mail recommends that unless David Cameron apologizes to the people of Pakistan, President Zardari should cancel his visit to Britain next week, which was planned before Mr. Cameron’s tradeoff to India.
