New Delhi: Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf is playing Talking Head these days, literally!
Suddenly, he is belting out sound bites not only on Kashmir but on a whole range of issues - Kargil, a purported US threat to bomb his country after 9/11, the Agra Summit, A Q Khan, Osama bin Laden, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's future, moderate Muslims and what not.
To anybody who might be following General Musharraf's oratorial marathon over the past week, it might appear as if there is nothing left for him to say!
While Musharraf's enthusiasm to tell the world about all the secrets he is privy to is understandable, considering the fact that he was going in for a big-bang launch of his much-awaited autobiography, on the hindsight it might appear that the General may have ended up overdoing this bit.
So much so, that to many people, it now appears to be a well-orchestrated sales pitch, same as what senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh had done days ahead of his book launch.
Or that is what one gathers from the hundreds of readers' responses on www.ibnlive.com in reaction to the story on the initial details available about the book.
"Though I don't exactly know about the facts that Musharraf claims, I know one thing - he did a very good sales pitch for his book in US. You turn on CNN, this is the news for two days - excellent publicity and big book shops are rushing to book their stocks," says a reader, Pradeep Nair.
"This man is trying to make money by selling false stories accusing India," feels another reader Amrita. "I don't know how the heads of states keep a relationship with a person like him," she wonders.
Meanwhile, there are many who see it as an image-building exercise by the Pakistani General with a larger interest to serve.
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"This seems like a good image building excercise by Musharraf and the Pakistani government to cover up their ugly face. By this book, Musharaff & Co want to convey to the world that they are not the responsible people for building and shrouding terrorists. It's not in their hands. They themselves have become targets of terrorists. A beautifully crafted ploy to project Pakistan as a peace-loving nation," says Vittal.
Some others say now that General Musharraf has revealed his true self, admitting to be the chief architect of the Kargil conflict, there is no point for India to engage in any peace dialogue with him.
"The Indian Government is haplessly witnessing this event. This is poor, mean and weak diplomacy at work, even though we have strong evidence to prove the world that terrorists and their camps are present inside Pakistan. Iron rods need to be hit with heavy hammers on anvil, not with flowers," opines Vittal.
"Our Indian establishment still wants to shake this General's hands as it did in Havana?" asks Anju Chandel.
And then there are those who want to trash his claims. "This book is a fine collection of lies to bolster his (GeneralMusharraf's) own position in Pakistan. Believing what he says is the way to disaster. India should ban his book," says S N Iyer
"Musharraf's logic that Kargil War was a landmark for the Pakiatan Army is a completely flawed argument," says Narasimham.
"Yes, the Pakistan Army which infiltrated India during Kargil enjoyed an edge militarily as they were in a better strategic position. That's why it took more of Indian Army to fight back and defeat them. But then it in no way means superiority of the Pakistani Army over their Indian counterparts," he adds.
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