Why this turnaround?

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's declaration on Tuesday that he is willing to allow Kashmiris to travel freely across the Line of Control to "meet their relatives and assist with the reconstruction effort" in Muzaffarabad and other earthquake devastated areas is an amusing turnaround for a man whose regime till now has gleefully snubbed India's offer to help with rescue operations and provide relief to the tens of thousands made homeless.

It would be wrong to interpret Gen Musharraf's conciliatory declaration as good sense prevailing over irrational sentiment; the Pakistani Army chief is a master tactician who carefully plots his every move. Had he been genuinely moved by India's humanitarian concern, he would not have mocked at New Delhi's offer to deploy Indian Air Force helicopters on rescue and relief missions in the occupied territory. Instead, Pakistan let it be known that it would be happy to use IAF helicopters minus Indian pilots and crew, knowing full well that India would never accept such absurd conditions.

Gen Musharraf claims that he has to be mindful of popular sentiments in Pakistan -which, in any event, at the moment are heavily loaded against him for his regime's abysmal failure to reach out to the victims of the disaster and its scrappy relief efforts -but surely he realises that people in India will not cheer at the sight of IAF helicopters being flown by Pakistani soldiers.

The sheer audacity of the suggestion betrays the bleak mindscape of the General and his men who have demonstrated to the entire world their sheer incapacity to manage affairs in the time of adversity. Therefore, there is no reason to celebrate Gen Musharraf's offer to allow Kashmiris unhindered access to occupied Kashmir or hail it as another path-breaking confidence-building measure.

It is entirely possible that Tuesday's sudden about-turn is nothing more than an attempt to mollify Gen Musharraf's critics at home and abroad who claim that India has been kept out of rescue and relief operations to hide the truth about the terrorist infrastructure in occupied Kashmir. It is an indisputable fact that the terror camps and other jihad facilities set up by Islamabad in occupied Kashmir remain untouched despite the tall promises made by Gen Musharraf to dismantle them.

The renewed fervor with which jihadis have been striking terror in Jammu & Kashmir -recall the horrific slaughter of Hindus in Jammu region and the dastardly killing of a Minister in Srinagar on Tuesday -bears testimony to this fact; to pretend otherwise would amount to accepting Pakistani fiction as truth. By offering to lift restrictions on travel across the LoC, Gen Musharraf has sought to foist the impression that he has nothing to hide. His bluff must be called.

The Government should make it abundantly clear to him that if he has indeed been telling the truth about dismantling terror camps and jihadi facilities, then there is no reason why Indian military personnel cannot participate in the ongoing multi-national relief efforts. By accepting the terms of engagement laid down by Gen Musharraf, India will be belittling its boys in uniform. Meanwhile, it would be in order not to take Gen Musharraf's offer at its face value and maintain strict vigil along the LoC. Anything less than this could turn out to be an unmitigated disaster. Reciprocity by India is liable to be misused by Pakistan for sending across fresh terror recruits. This is not a chance worth taking.