In the line of fire

Reports about former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf returning to active politics in Pakistan have been appearing with greater frequency. 'Mushy' who has been busy on lecture tours while in exile in London has vitriol flowing in his veins. The man who India welcomed with song and dance when he came home to New Delhi in 2001 (he was born in New Delhi and then moved to Pakistan when he was 4-year-old) had spewed vitriol in his autobiography, In the Line of Fire. The book, which some years ago used to be sold in pirated form on the city's roads is sub-titled, 'A Memoir'.

With Republic Day around the corner, here is what Musharraf has to say about Indian soldiers in his book. He writes, "India has the largest film industry in the world and is rightly famous for making highly romanticised and unrealistic movies, so it came as no surprise to us when we intercepted the Indians' communication about the fake skirmishes and encounters that they were regularly having with the Pakistan Army in their fertile imagination. Our amusement turned to hilarity when these fake encounters became the basis for recommendations and nominations for awards of gallantry."

In a chapter titled Kargil Conflict, Musharraf says it was India's aggression that drove them to a Kargil conflict repeatedly stresses that the heavy casualties India suffered, boasts about the Pak army achievements and says, "Having failed to dislodge the groups occupying the heights, the Indians resorted to mass attacks. These attacks gained little ground, but the Indian media hyped their success." Then Musharraf says sounding like a petulant teenager, "Neither side had an appetite for war, but India worked hard to isolate us diplomatically."

With the ICC World Cup less than a month away, one needs to flip to page 301 under a chapter called International Diplomacy. In this, his hatred for India is even more apparent at his glee when Pakistan beats India in a cricket match in 2005, when he was on a visit to India. He says he had to repress his joy. Musharraf later qualifies this by saying that India beat Pakistan in a later series so Manmohan Singh had a chance to be, "even". Meanwhile, ironically, writing about Nawaz Sharif's exile in London at the time the book was released Musharraf says, "Exile and isolation are an opportunity for introspection and critical self-analysis. Sharif apparently learned nothing from his exile and failed to grow intellectually or politically." What has Musharraf learnt from his?u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0