A case for regional cooperation
Anyone that thinks that war is an option has got to be a nut. Anyone that thinks that war between nuclear-armed countries is an option should be committed. Nuclear weapons are there to stop wars from happening, not to start them. By that measure Israel’s Netanyahu should be in the nut house.
Peace is the only option, peace that is acceptable to all sides. That is honourable. Else it is not peace at all, only an illusion of it. India and Pakistan are champion illusionists, but illusionists would know better than anyone that illusions evaporate very fast.
Pakistanis are a very optimistic people, a most endearing, quality and a very big strength. Any India-Pakistan summit and we feel that peace is at hand. Most laudable, for it underlines not only that we are an optimistic but also fundamentally a peace loving people who want to get on with their lives. Which makes our lack of peace at home ironic, but that is another subject. When our Zardari recently broke bread with their Manmohan Singh in Delhi, we went through naive excitement for the umpteenth time. If you really want peace certain realities have to be borne in mind.
India’s state terrorism particularly in Kashmir begets and reinforces freedom struggles what it calls non-state terrorism. Blaming Pakistan deflects attention from its state terrorism. Sure Pakistan gives it succor as any adversary would, like India did the ‘Mukti Baheni’. But it was our own state terrorism and iniquity against the Bengalis that caused it. India took advantage, as any adversary would.
If Pakistan were to ignore Kashmir the struggle might lose some of its teeth, but only for a while, for soon it will grow new ones. The Kashmir revolt is a creation of Indian intransigence that Pakistan takes advantage of. I have always said: state terrorism begets non-state terrorism. Non-state terrorism will remain no matter how many treaties you sign while brushing cores issues under a carpet dyed in human blood and woven with the weak threads of bilateral trade, film productions and cricket matches. As long as state terrorism persists, non-state terrorism will continue. Period. I cannot understand why the world cannot comprehend such a self-evident truth.
India is a large country with a small country mentality whereas Pakistan is a relatively small country with a big country mentality. Ours comes from the millennium-long Muslim rule over India. Conversely, India’s comes from being ruled by Muslims for over a millennium. I don’t know how much currency this theory has, but both countries should have disabused themselves of such complexes by now. India, I feel, is beginning to get out of this mindset with its economic upswing, but it will not be totally eradicated until the next generations in both countries take the helm for they are less burdened by stories of slavery and Partition. Land and population sizes don’t matter, the human condition does. That the majority of our peoples live in abject poverty makes us puny. By that measure – and it is the only relevant measure – Singapore is a much bigger country than either India or Pakistan. Its real resource is the high quality of its leadership and its greater human capital development. By these measures, India and Pakistan are pathetic.
Strong and wise rulers on both sides can bring detente. Neither Zardari nor Manmohan can be accused of either strength or wisdom. Cleverness: yes. Strength: hardly. Wisdom: a big fat no. Only strong and wise leaders can ‘sell’ an inevitably compromise-laden agreement to their peoples without their patriotism being questioned, their opponents making capital out of it and a ratings-hungry media taking jibes at them.
The great anomaly is where real power lies in both countries. It should be with the chief executive who is the head of state and prime minister. But both countries are dynasty ridden. So in Pakistan it lies with the constitutionally ceremonial president because he is also co-chairman of the ruling party by virtue of being Benazir Bhutto’s widower. That is where his power comes from. In India, an Italian catholic lady is leader of the ruling party only because she is Rajiv Gandhi’s widow. That is where her power comes from.
Manmohan Singh is a weak, proxy prime minister as is Pakistan’s Yusuf Reza Gilani. Singh belongs to the small Sikh minority and is keenly aware that he has to go the extra mile to ‘prove’ his patriotism in the backdrop of the Sikh rebellion for an independent state during the eighties, the storming of the Golden Temple and the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh body guards. Gilani is in office at Zardari’s pleasure while he and his son are running from the courts.
Both countries face difficult elections soon, as does their great ‘ally’ America. America will have a determining say in any India-Pakistan deal. All decisions by these three countries now will be heavily informed by the need to get re-elected.
Without the military leaderships of both countries on board any expectation of a meaningful deal is a pipedream. While our army’s role in policymaking is well known, the Indian military’s role is camouflaged. Nothing new: the US military often plays a decisive role in foreign and defence policy. If it did not, Afghanistan would have been attacked by the Bush the Brat.
Should we forget the ‘core issue’ – Kashmir and the UN resolutions asking for a plebiscite there? Or should we sort it out first? Or, should we put it on the backburner and normalise relations in other areas – which India calls ‘Confidence Building Measures’? Kashmir will not let us forget it as long as a freedom struggle rages there. And it will continue raging with or without our support. In fact, the Kashmiri freedom fighters could even turn on us for abandoning them. As long as the Kashmiri freedom struggle continues unresolved, the sword of Damocles will keep hanging over our heads for it takes only one madman on either side to vapourise all of South Asia. Best to do all simultaneously – core issue, other delimitation issues and CBMs – what Musharraf and Vajpayee agreed to, a ‘Composite Dialogue’ and hope for the best. What is needed is simultaneous statesmanship and raw guts on both sides. Leave it to the functionaries and we will continue nitpicking for another six decades.
India and Pakistan should stop tussling over an America-free Afghanistan and arrive at a mutually acceptable understanding. Afghanistan may not want either of us anyway. As if killing ourselves over Kashmir isn’t enough, we cannot go killing ourselves over Afghanistan too.
Illogical demands should stop. Asking for Hafiz Saeed without furnishing adequate proof is illogical. America has to ship up or shape out of the India-Pakistan equation instead of being a fly in the ointment by placing a bounty on Saeed’s head one day and then changing it to a bounty for evidence two days later. If you don’t even have evidence, what the hell are you doing placing a bounty on someone head for? The only sense it makes is that you are trying to derail the normalisation process.
America wants peace for its own reasons.
1. It realises that war between India and Pakistan is no longer an option. Another war between them could well mean another World War. The US and its traditional allies will suffer unacceptable multi-sectoral damage, regardless of what happens to India and Pakistan.
2. It wants an India free from ‘Pakistani sniping’ to focus on creating an economic and military bulwark against fast-growing Chinese economic and military might.
The conundrum is that while America says it wants India-Pakistan normalisation, it doesn’t want them ganging up to form a South Asian Economic Association or some such, which has the seeds of becoming another giant. Worse, Pakistan’s presence could be instrumental in bringing China into the fold as India could Russia. Can you then imagine what a ‘monster’ the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation with the South Asian Economic Association could become? Soon energy-rich Iran and the Central Asian states would want to be part of the action.
They needn’t worry, though. America is so far ahead in the sciences – medicine, genetics, space, computer sciences and so much more – that it cannot lose its position of preeminence though it will certainly lose some of its monopoly. No bad thing for America either, for sharing over-lordship might bring its foreign and defence policies into the realm of civilisation and rationality.
The writer is a political analyst. He can be contacted at [email protected]
You are absolutely right that state terrorism begets none state terrorism, which unfortunately is not highlighted by a leading part of media, as intensely as Indian media does otherwise. Another point you have missed is Indians sponsorship of terror in Pakistan via Afghanistan. Lately India has been sponsoring terror in Pakistan. From Mariot to Balouchistan from Gilgit Baltistan to Target killing in Karachi India has its hands dyed in blood.
SHAHID HUSSEIN QABOOLPURIA,
LAHORE, PAKISTAN
A democratic state has right to protect itself against religion driven armed urgency sponsered from outside. There is nothing like state-terrorism. Pakistanis are being held all over the world for spreading, aiding and abbetting Islamic terrorism, I wonder Islam is only for destructive puprose only. In every violent struggle one side is always Muslims.
You dont have any shred of evidence of India's involvement in restive Balochustan so from where he will write ??? India need not to do anything as Islam and violence go hand in hand.. snake will eat another snake…
Peace in the region and friendship between two nuclear neighbours is important. Every body is voicing for peace but we should be realistic that why it not happens. The key of peace and stability is in the resolution of Kashmir. It should be resolved in accordance with the aspirations and wishes of the people of Kashmir who are peacefully struggling and paying sacrifices for that since long decades. Every body should accept reality and who loves peace, economic developments and friendship between two countries should voice for the settlement of Kashmir on priority basis. It will stop arms race and tension in the region i hope and believe.
And who are you (pakistan)?? the saviour and keeper of Kashmir??
Kashmir is a part of India and India will deal with it, why dont Pakistan deal with the baloch problem or the terrorism problem in the whole of Pakistan or even deal with the US and the NATO whipping your behind??
Dont u understand that Pakistan has no bargaining chips on the table? it is so pathetic
I agree that Kashmir must be resolved before anything… and the solution is Pakistan must handover the parts of Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that it has illegally and deceitfully occupied, back to India, as well as Aksai Chin and other areas of the state that Pakistan has acceded to China. Only than can be any forward movement in talks.
Always clear headed and wise. HG is my favorite any time.
The author and his Readers are quick to agree that India is terrorizing Kashmir. That is simple nonsense. Terror is what the Pakis are doing in Baluchistan, the Chinese in Tibet. In Kashmir, it is the Indian Hindus that are being dispossessed and chased out; the very reverse of ethnic cleansing. Ask any Bosnian or Tibetan. India has bent over backwards to keep ownership of Kashmiri land in the hands of Kashmiris. The Chinese have taken pains to grab as much Tibetan land as possible for the Han Chinese. Now, that is ethnic cleansing. First, only a small portion of Kashmir, the Valley is anywhere near feeling disenfranchised by India. There have been real elections in Kashmir for decades; this is very unlike elections in Pak Occupied Kashmir where all candidates have to swear allegiance to the Paki State. Nevertheless, I would support India making a historic compromise with Pakistan to swap the Valley for Northern Kashmir.
Two, the UN Resolution plesbicite referred to by many also requires Pakistan to withdraw first from Pak Occupied Kashmir; that is the primary reason no plebicite could be held, because of Paki intransigence. Read the 1948 UN Resolution on the Pakistan Govt website which names Pakistan as the aggressor and requires Pak to withdraw so elections can be held under UN auspices. Three, all of Kashmir is legally Indian and that must be recognized as part of the final resolution of the dispute, which should return to India portions of Kashmir given to China after stealing from India. If Pakistan wants to settle the matter, it is simple. It is up to Pakistan, as it always has been. India is ready for peace or war, any time.
Looks like another narrowminded low quality writing thats gone well with some jingoistic Pak readers. There has never been any mindset of a small country on Indias part there wouldnot have been a pakistan on the world map at this time. bangladesh liberation was only to deal with the humongous refugee problem that was begining at the time. If India wanted to occupy bangladesh which was about half of Pakistan it could have been done in a flash. The war only lasted for a few hours before Pak soldiers surrendered!!!
And still Pakistan is showing aggressive stance when it comes to kashmir. Kashmir is a part of India and there is nothing that Pakistan can do about. If that is a problem with Pakistan then India doesnt want peace with Pakistan. And whats most idiotic is that everytime u compare India with Pakistan when it comes to economic development and poverity!!! India is the 4th largest economy and at the moment and the US, China and the whole world are lining up do business with India. Whereas Pakistan is looked down upon as a curse on this earth!!Pakistan doesnt make what India wastes in terms of economy!!! Get your facts right before u write something stupid!!
Excellent !
The British ruled half the world, yet I do no see the Chritians in India and Pakistan claiming to have ruled us for 200 year!! it's pathetic that the Hindu converts of yesteryears pretend to be Arabs.
Sonia G rules everybody…
Another doomed Prophet preaching wisdom….
Who are you to talk on behalf of Kashmir people ? Both your mullahs and military has a hidden territorial design and I guaranatee you, that your nefarious designs will never be fullfilled Period. What is happening in Kashmir is a frenzy .. a hysteria in the name of Islam created by loosers from your country against a secualr democracy and it has outlived its utility and there is nothing you can do as you never left anything undone. It is not only defeat for you religion and country it also brought lot of criticism and admonishment from international community before whom you beat your chest.
There is more than adequate evidence against terror master of Sargodha, Syed Hafiz, but in a land where terrorism has been patronized in the name of religion, of course, you will always find evidence adequate.. We have lost little loosing 166 people ..there is Mumbai In Pakistan everyday now.. The ethnic strife will implode Pakistan..I am so glad to see you playing street smart in Mumbai terror case and suffering endlessly.
You better save Balochustan, if you can..
By the way let us see if Pakistan survives…before we talk peace with it…
India has NO FIRST USE of nuclear bombs. Pakistan? India is ready for NO WAR Pact. Pakistan? Can the author explain.
Looks like the earth is still flat for Humayun Gauhar …
(sorry Mr. Gauhar, I am using only a fractional amount of 'characterization' compared to yours')…
Mr. Gauhar seems to be living in fool's paradise even now when even the existence of Pakistan is in jeopardy. Save your country from your own 'thugs' and 'jihadis' first and then talk about India.
Finally US has caught up with Mr.Gauhar too like Moeed Peerzada and company.
What is the point in writing this article?
Why not instead convince Hafiz Saeed and Hamid Gul that "Peace is the only option". India has been telling you the same for over half a century.
The author doubts the patriotism of Indian Sikhs. He should remember that not long back Gen.J.J.singh, a Sikh, was head of over a million strong army and the next Army Chief is going to be another Sikh. The author seems to be living in his own imaginary world . Good luck to him !!
If you talk about Manmohan singh having to prove his patriotism then what would you comment on the previous president of India, he is a muslim but he is one of the best presidents India ever had. According to you he must have destroyed India right???
If only the whole world was as pathetic as the religious jingoistic Pak society these things may be true. Unlike Pak India is a vibrant society, as Mark Twain points out "when it comes to religions theres only one millionaire (India)". With millions of religions India is a temple of religious harmony whether hindus, muslims sikhs christians or who ever it is.
Sir,pl upcheck your fact.Never in lasat 65 years Kashmir valley has been bombed by Indian air force, despite being infested by Pakistani inflitrators. No Kashmiri leader has been killed by the army.Kashmir has highest per capita income in this part of india. Compare it with Baluchistan,PAF bombing, army raping like it did in bangladesh, young men being killed despite they being muslim.
first take care of Baluchistan then talk of Kashmir.
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