While Pakistan could still try and develop a taste for grass by rejecting US assistance, there is no way it can economically sustain the fight against the Islamist insurgency without external assistance.

Indian insurgent groups are re-establishing camps in Bhutan and are also forging links with Bhutanese rebel groups.

“There is credible information of ongoing plans of terrorist groups in Pakistan to carry out fresh attacks. The area of operation of these terrorists today extends far beyond the confines of Jammu & Kashmir and covers all parts of our country…In dealing with the terrorist challenge we need to be prepared for encountering more sophisticated technologies and enhanced capabilities.”

- PM’s speech at CM’s conference on internal security, 17 August 2009

As the din and the dust raised by the Sharm al-Sheikh document settles down, it seems to be opening new possibilities for India to effectively deal with the emerging situation in Pakistan by finally being able to encourage and back ideas of democratic federalism and non sectarian polity in that country. The reference to Baluchistan in the Sharm al-Sheikh Joint Statement has invited the sharpest reactions. But, has not that reference elevated the issue of continuing Pakistani persecution of the Baluchs to an international level?

Indonesian police confirmed on July 19 that the twin blasts at the Ritz Carlton and Marriott Hotels in Jakarta two days earlier, which left nine people dead (including two suicide bombers) and more than 50 injured, was the handiwork of Jemaah Islamiyah. This shows that terrorism and terror networks are still existent in Indonesia, a nascent democratic country with the largest Muslim population in the world. These blasts are meant to create panic and show that the nebulous terror groups like Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) are trying to come out of their oblivion.

Diplomatic and political naivety, coupled with enormous pressure from a clueless America helplessly flailing its superpower muscle in the Af-Pak region, and of course that old disease that all Indian Prime Ministers’ suffer from – a sense of manifest destiny to normalise relations with Pakistan – have led to a Joint Statement by the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers in Sharm-el-Sheikh which is full of concessions, compromises and climb-downs by India.