Former foreign secretary J.N. Dixit thinks Pakistan's offer of talks after the coup is just a "tactical move to reassure the rest of the world not to worry, that things are getting back to normal". Adds B.G. Verghese of the Centre for Policy Research: "They're sending a signal not necessarily to us but to the world community that just because the generals have taken over, it has not made the place more unsafe."However, says a senior government official, if the army coup took place partly because of the army's dissatisfaction with Sharif's wilting under international pressure over Kargil, then the new army rule is likely to take a more confrontational stand with India. Dixit agrees. "Musharraf is a hardliner. He has to be taken care of-we should deal with him, but we should make it clear to him that if he indulges in the same sort of adventurousness as he did in Kargil, then he'll be dealt with even more decisively than before." It's generally understood that it was fundamentalist religious elements in the Pakistani army led by Musharraf with the tacit support of senior retired officers who initiated the Kargil operation.
The coup though, thinks Dixit, hasn't worsened the security environment in the region. "In terms of the nuclear bomb," he says, "things are as uncertain as they were before-not more or less." Even the US, which knows of Musharraf's long-standing links with several Islamic fundamentalist groups, is reluctant to isolate Pakistan at this juncture. While stressing the need for a return to democracy, it has communicated to the world press their belief that there's been no change in who controls the nuclear button in Pakistan.