One of India’s foremost experts on Pakistan, who has served two tenures in that country, first as Deputy High Commissioner and then as High Commissioner, says “we have to be very concerned about developments in Pakistan and on our guard against spill-over developments”. When asked if he believes this is simply a matter of concern or whether, additionally, we need to be worried, T.C.A. Raghavan rephrased himself to say: “We need to be worried and not just concerned” adding “we have every reason to be worried” and pointing out “worry can have different dimensions”.
In an to The Wire, Raghavan, who also served as Director General of the Indian Council of World Affairs, discussed at length several aspects of Pakistan’s crises – constitutional, political, economic and social – with, additionally, terrorism becoming a new and worrying problem. Raghavan also discussed two or three possible scenarios that could develop and how much of a concern they should be to us in India. These scenarios include the possibility that the G20 meeting in Srinagar, which begins today and continues till the 23rd, could provide a tempting target for terrorists who have, anyway, stepped up activity in the last few weeks in the Poonch-Rajouri sector.
