It will be interesting to wait and see whether the Pakistan government, through its otherwise ultra-active embassy in New Delhi, offers a detailed rebuttal of what The Statesman has said in connection with its involvement with the activities of extremist Sikhs in India. Some of the points the daily has made are incontrovertible. In recent years the Pakistan government has shown a far greater interest in the upkeep of Sikh shrines in its territory than ever before and it has gone out of its way to make Sikh pilgrims feel welcome. Many of them have come back home loaded with gifts which one must be innocent to believe could have come from the residents of towns where the pilgrims lived before partition. President Zia-ul-Haq has found time to meet such groups and individuals. These indisputable facts, of course, do not clinch the issue. President Zia is one of the best public relations men in the world and he has been keen to charm as many Indians as humanly possible. He has been quite a success. Not just with Sikh pilgrims but also with a lot of “seasoned” journalists who have come to constitute quite a lobby for him in this country. And a number of Pakistanis tend to be rather sentimental about Indians, Pakistani Punjabis for fellow Punjabis from across the border and muhajirin (refugees) for Indians from the relevant states and towns. Similarly, the upkeep of the Sikh shrines could be part of the “peace offensive” of President Zia and of Mr. Bhutto before him.
One, however, need not be cynic to think that it would have been surprising if Pakistan had not been looking for a chink in the Indian armour close to its border and had not sought to widen it to its advantage. That is a game adversary nations play even when they are pretending, or even trying, to normalize relations. China has been doing so for years in eastern India. Indeed, Pakistan too openly trained rebel Nagas and Mizos in east Bengal before its break-up and the emergence of a sovereign Bangladesh in December 1971. Apparently Mrs. Gandhi has had reasons to be suspicious of President Zia’s regime in respect of Punjab as well as Jammu and Kashmir. That may be one reason why she has been less than enthusiastic about his offer of a no-war treaty. But as is usual with her, she has made general statements and not backed them with facts. Surely someone in her set-up could have leaked this information. All governments operate in that way. The result is there for anyone to see. By and large, Mrs. Gandhi’s warnings have gone unheeded and extremist Sikhs have not been exposed to be what they are. That too may not be all. Since a lot of smuggling takes place along the Indo-Pakistan border, it may be useful for the authorities to look into the connection, if any, between it and the extremist activities in Punjab. And if they have already done so and come to certain conclusions, the people have a right to know what these conclusions are.