let’s see where Pakistan’s JIT probe leads to
The Opposition's high-pitched jingoistic criticism of the access given to Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team that visited India on Tuesday to look into the Pathankot terror attack case, is misplaced. The initiative was neither about putting out the red carpet for the enemy nor letting the accused sit in judgement of himself. And it was definitely not a case of the Modi Government bending over backwards to accommodate demands from Islamabad in the hope that it will strengthen his Pakistan policy in some way. Instead, this was a simple pragmatic gesture, a confidence-building measure of sorts — and that too, one that came at a relatively low cost to India. No matter the shrill rhetoric of the Opposition, the fact of the matter is that allowing the Pakistani JIT access to the Pathankot air base, which was the scene of an 80-hour-long gun battle earlier this year, does not in any way compromise the case that India is building in this regard nor does it jeopardise national security. The Pakistani team was escorted by Indian officials and taken to a well-sanitised location. The argument that the team would have used this opportunity to glean some top secret information about our military base is just silly. Equally amateur is the contention that by cooperating with the Pakistani team, India has somehow absolved the Pakistani state of its presumable guilt in this case. While there is no denying that some segments of the Pakistani establishment quite possibly had a role to play in the Pathankot attack, as they almost always have in previous terror attacks in this country, India has still worked with the Government in Pakistan to tackle terror think of the numerous occasions that India has shared dossiers on suspected terrorists with Pakistan. Sure, this level of cooperation, wherein Pakistani investigators come to the site of the terror attack in India and look around, is rare, but that doesn't mean there has been a compromise.
Now, the question is about the efficacy of such efforts. In all probability, the JIT trip will come to naught. Pakistani officials can be expected to complain that they weren't given as much access as they needed or that they didn't find anything pointing to the involvement of terror groups operating out of Pakistan. From India's point of view, this is hardly a setback. Few here expect Pakistan to willingly take action against its anti-India proxies. If there is a symbolic crackdown on some groups or individuals, as we had seen after 26/11, it will be because of the international pressure that India generates. So, what does New Delhi gain from thisIJ The answer is simple: Good publicity. To Pakistan, the Modi Government demonstrates that it is serious about working together wherever possible (in the process, also deflating Pakistan's potential argument about India being uncooperative). And to the rest of the world, it gives India an opportunity to walk the high moral ground.