WASHINGTON – A red-faced Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former military ruler, has conceded that he has “Indian blood” in him, a fact that made him a votary of peace with India.
The embarrassing moment for Musharraf, who has a hard-nosed approach to India, came during a talk at the Carnegie Endowment on Wednesday when an audience member reminded him that he was born in India and has Indian blood in him after he (Musharraf) claimed he was “reasonably popular” in India despite his bluntness towards New Delhi, where he was born.
“Well, yes. I admit, yes indeed,” a discomfited Musharraf said amid laughter in the audience about the question of Indian blood. “That is why I say that India and Pakistan must have peace. I’m a strong – very strong believer: We must have peace.”
But that didn’t stop the architect of the Kargil war and terrorist incursions into India from launching a familiar tirade against New Delhi for its footprint in Afghanistan, which he and his fellow military minds see as a threat to Pakistan’s interests that centers around a power grab for the Taliban and other medieval forces.
