The present Kashmir crisis feels like a déjà vu replay of the last one. Three years ago a weak Indian coalition government led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party had just lost a confidence vote in India's Parliament and was nervously awaiting a general election. At once it began to beat the war drums over Kashmir. Now another coalition government, still led by the B.J.P. and deeply tainted by B.J.P. supporters' involvement in the massacre of hundreds of Muslims in Gujarat State, may be about to lose another general election. So here goes the government again, talking up a Kashmiri war and asking India to stand firm behind its leadership.

The move, according to informed sources, was taken after it was found that Mohammed, leader of the suicide squad attack on Parliament, had extensively used the Internet and e-mail facilities while planning the December 13 operations.

The immediate danger, perhaps similar in character to the danger that existed in July 1914 after Serbian terrorists had murdered the Austrian Archduke, is that no one will succeed in preventing the war which both Indian and Pakistani public opinion seems to support. The further danger is that the bin Laden strategy will succeed, with or without bin Laden. His strategy was to use terror to create a general state of war between Islam and the major powers by undermining the West and radicalising the Muslims.

The terrorists who attacked India's parliament Dec. 13 killed 12 people, including themselves. They achieved their probable goal, to drive India and Pakistan to war or its brink.

If the purpose was to change the subject in Pakistan, to create tension with India greater than the alliance with the United States, to divert troops from Afghanistan's border, it has worked.