Lets first quickly get ourselves updated with the terminology. Blue Star refers to the operation by the Indian Army in 1984 to purge militants out of the Golden Temple in the state of Punjab. Inside was held up Jarnail Singh Bhidranwale who became a relevant force in Punjab politics with the help of then prime minister Indira Gandhi but decided to turn against her soon enough.
What has happened at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, has a lot of similarities with Operation Blue Star. Jarnail Singh Bhidranwale is widely believed to be the creation of Indira Gandhi to divide the Khalistan movement. It is wonderful how many monsters Indira Gandhi managed at any particular point of time. She boiled up the Sikh separatist movement. She created Tamil Tigers to have a say into Sri Lanka. And then his own son, Sanjay Gandhi...well, the balancing act had to become overwhelming at some time. Within a few months after Blue Star, Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her own Sikh bodyguard. Nothing has shaken the foundation of the Indian republic more than those days of 1984 starting from Blue Star in June and ending in the murder of more than 3000 Sikhs as revenge for Indira Gandhi's assasination.
Musharraf, after seizing power, used Mohammad Aziz of Lal Masjid to talk against Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. Aziz, with the help of Musharraf, soon became powerful enough to issue edicts about bigger things. Suddenly, girls in one of the
Madrassas associated with Lal Masjid started kidnapping women not Islamic enough in their deeds. And all this was happening not very far off from Musharraf's residence. So time was ripe to fight the monster. Musharraf, like Indira Gandhi, has done
just that. It seems that the first round of battle has been won by Musharraf. What is still not known are the longer term implications of this action. Time will tell...
Being able to create monsters,being able to tame them and then dispose them off, forms the basis of political power that is cold and completely impersonal. Musharraf has perfected the art of balancing monsters that have completely opposite interests. One the one hand are Americans who want him to fight Islamists. Their lies his core support and the basis for his international status despite being a dictator. Then there are the Islamists that were created by Pakistan but since 9/11 have become more of a burden. And finally, there is India...for keeping Islamists in control, Musharraf has to talk as well as send terrorists in Kashmir. Recently, a fourth monster sprang up in form of the dismissed chief justice of supreme court. By sending the army to Lal Masjid, he has tried to create the image of a fighter for moderate voices in Pakistan and consolidate his core constituency that was slowly shifting towards the fired judge.
In years to come, we will know the ultimate result of his policies but till now, Musharraf has done a fine job. As Niccolo Machiavelli would say:"For a Prince, Survival is not a mean but an end in itself". If this is the case, then Musharraf gets a perfect A.
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