New Delhi - India backed down yesterday from a military confrontation with Pakistan, whom it blamed for sponsoring last week's suicide attack on parliament, writes Rahul Bedi. Instead, it is considering a diplomatic and political offensive against its nuclear rival.
Apart from a pledge to "stamp out terrorism" in the government's first formal statement in parliament on the events of December 13th, home minister Mr Lal K. Advani avoided any reference to retaliation against Pakistan.
"It is time for all of us . . . to ponder why the terrorists and their backers tried to raise the stakes so high," Mr Advani said. The only answer is that a theocratic Pakistan is unable to reconcile itself with the reality of a secular, democratic, self-confident and steadily progressing India whose standing in the international community is getting inexorably higher with the passage of time, he added.
Pakistan denied involvement in the attack. It also reiterated its offer of a joint investigation with India into the raid that killed 13 people, including the five assailants.
US concern that rising tensions between the two neighbours could escalate into a full-blown conflict led Washington to advise India to proceed with caution. It asked Delhi to resolve the stand-off by sharing evidence it had of Pakistani involvement in the attack and consider retaliatory strikes only if Gen Pervaiz Musharraf did not comply.