Pakistan is India's first line of defence

The burning of Hotel Marriot at Islamabad that Indian TVs showed at length and repeatedly is still etched in the memory of the horrified people. They are worried about Pakistan. Even the hawks do not conceal their anxiety. The intelligentsia's concern is that the nascent democratic government might not be able to cope with the Al Qaida-Taliban and might have to depend on the military which would want its price.

People do not know how far the Al Qaida-Taliban combine has penetrated Pakistan. But the belief is that the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), Waziristan and, to a large extent, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is under the control of the Taliban. Were they to "capture" more territory, what would be its effect on India is the greatest worry. President Asif Ali Zardari's remark that "the Taliban have an upper hand" is all the more unnerving. America agrees with him.

A Pakistani television commentator has challenged Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani to travel from Kohat to Banu. The commentator's contention is that the Pakistan government has already "withdrawn" from this area.

If this is true, there is some truth in the repeated allegation that former president Pervez Musharraf, even when he wore the uniform, was never serious about curbing the Al Qaida-Taliban. He found it an effective way to mulct America.

That he connived at the intervention of the US troops on Pakistani soil is an open secret. In contrast, Zardari's statement or that of the Chief of Army Staff Pervez Kiyani that Pakistan's sovereignty would not be allowed to be trifled with has come as a welcome surprise.

Islamabad is defending its territory and there are signs of it when its guns drove away the American helicopters the other day. Pakistan is careful not to engage the superpower but whatever Islamabad is doing to keep its dignity intact needs to be commended.

I do not think that Al Qaida-Taliban is seeking territory in Pakistan. They want northern areas which would help them recapture Afghanistan which was under their rule until they were toppled.

In fact, the US is responsible for the birth of the Taliban. During the Cold War when Washington wanted to bleed Moscow to death, America trained and armed fundamentalists to oust the irreligious Soviet Union from Afghanistan.

America won the Cold War when the Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of what happened to it in Afghanistan. Those fundamentalists are today's Taliban and they have the weapons which were liberally provided by America.

What is not probably appreciated amply is that Pakistan's war against Taliban is India's war too. If ever Pakistan goes under, India's first line of defence would collapse. The Taliban would have secured the launching pad to attack India's values of democracy and liberalism which do not fit into their scheme of things.

Terrorism is the means, Talibalistan is the end. New Delhi and Islamabad should jointly fight against the menace.

There is a lesson for New Delhi which is a sad picture of inaction and ineptness when assessed in terms of action taken against communal forces. Law and order has always been a state subject. Still the centre's response was lukewarm.

It sent to Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala an advice on the lines of Article 355 which enjoins upon the Union to protect states against external aggression and internal disturbance. Had New Delhi's order gone under Article 355 itself, the fundamentalist Bajrang Dal would not have openly butchered Christians and burnt churches. Surprisingly, there is no ban on Bajrang Dal.

New Delhi has done well in rejecting the demand of BJP for bringing back the Prevention of Terrorists Activities Act (POTA) which authorised the state to detain people for months without trial. The act was used against the Naxalites and Muslims mercilessly. In this atmosphere, the Muslims would have been the target.

This is what has happened after the encounter at Zakir Bagh at Delhi where two terrorists and one police inspector were killed. The debate over the veracity of the "encounter" is still raging. The locality believes it was stage managed. Why such a feeling arises is because of the credibility gap between the people and the authorities.

The matter is much more serious: Muslims and Christians have lost faith in the fairness of the state. This will be hard to restore if the secular forces do not assert themselves and retrieve Muslims, Christians and, more so, the Hindus from the bias and prejudice in which many are stuck.

Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP.