America hasn’t helped matters for Pakistan
Two understand where India stands in relation to Pakistan, one may look at their elected leaders for clarity.
Prime Minister Modi is the risen star of India. A man of the people for the people. The saviour of Gujrat. A man much loved and admired. You can’t sweep elections with such a heavy mandate if it’s otherwise. It’s in the air — the passion and respect that millions feel for him, and above all the hope and promise that his own life story is wrapped up in; a story that were it not for being real could just as easily be construed as a Bollywood coming of age tale about a boy who sold tea at a railway station ascending to the highest level in the world’s largest democracy.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, on the other hand, has been elected thrice – this being his third term – his first two terms never quite making it to the finish line. In that he surpasses Modi by three to one. And that’s the only thing in which he surpasses Modi. The rest of it is pitifully bleak. Unlike Modi, Mr Sharif is viewed with great scepticism for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is his previous stint in government which wasn’t exactly a high point in Pakistan’s history. Besides, PTI chairman Imran Khan’s rising popularity over the years has further diminished his electorate. More and more people — disillusioned with the status quo, the broken promises and continuing problems that are now so preponderant that they merit little comment — are gradually shifting towards Khan’s call for social justice and systemic overhaul. This was visible in Khan’s dharna – a mini Arab spring — in Islamabad, that united people from across the spectrum pledging their support for his party.
It is becoming increasingly obvious, much to the chagrin of the Pakistan, that America’s foreign policy is gradually tipping favourably towards India. The Pivot to Asia strategy authored by Hillary Clinton is example of that
No greater was the contrast between Modi and Sharif more visible than in the reception that the two men received in their recent visits to US. While Modi stood on a revolving stage before a rapturous crowd of 20,000 Indian Americans in Madison Square Garden, one sensed a particular energy in the atmospherics of it all. The energy of a people who’ve come alive, of a nation poised for flight, and a leader showing the way. This, by the way, is the same Modi who was rejected a US visa in 2005. The irony was probably not lost on Mr Sharif, whose own reception in New York was a much humbler affair. Lacking almost entirely in anything like the fanfare that accompanied Modi, this unremarkable non-event offered no highlights other than the few random scatterings of jaded Pakistani Americans chanting “go Nawaz go” slogans – a somewhat retarded ritual in itself considering how frequently this slogan is employed by fellow Pakistanis for their democratically elected leaders, sometimes only within months of their coming into power.
America hasn’t helped matters for Pakistan. While it claims to be Pakistan’s ally – a half-truth not lost on even the cerebrally challenged – it continues to mock its own claim through thinly veiled contempt for the smaller country. Obama’s comments on Pakistan always come packaged in innuendo and a mild scent of displeasure. While the good president has already visited India once during his first term, he plans to visit Modi’s land again this year. Pakistan has, thus far, and not unpredictably, been denied the president’s presence. The last time the president visited Pakistan was when he was still in university, a young man of many dreams, not yet soiled by the muck and online casino grime of politics.
It is becoming increasingly obvious, much to the chagrin of the Pakistan, that America’s foreign policy is gradually tipping favourably towards India. The Pivot to Asia strategy authored by Hillary Clinton is example of that. The doctrine stresses America’s “long-term strategic partnership” with India as it views the country as a “regional economic anchor and provider of security in the broader Indian Ocean region.”
Pakistan, like a stunted, unweaned child, lives on America’s nourishment, and keeps building its army while ignoring its schools in a psychopathic cycle that continues to deny it any manner of self-sufficiency – the only honourable way to live
With Pakistan, the US continues to maintain a deranged relationship, throwing a bone here a scrap there to keep the country at work against terrorism. The recent announcement of the 532 million dollar aid package is a welcome development, but one wonders how long this patron-beggar relationship will last before dignity finally returns to the land of pure?
Common sense is outraged by the manifest idiocy of this bizarre triumvirate arrangement. Consider: America wants better relationship with India both for its economic gains and strategic leverage vis-à-vis China. To that end, it finds itself diplomatically constrained given that it needs to maintain, at the minimum, a pretence of reasonable relations with Pakistan for its WOT efforts. Pakistan, like a stunted, unweaned child, lives on America’s nourishment, and keeps building its army while ignoring its schools in a psychopathic cycle that continues to deny it any manner of self-sufficiency – the only honourable way to live. A damning indictment for a country that’s obsessed with honour.
Pakistan must confront the stinging reality that it needs India more than ever before. So it can finally turn its attention to schools rather than military barracks. Produce more teachers than soldiers. And that, finally, there is talk of commerce and trade, of building economic bridges and dismantling territorial barriers rather than the eerie phantasmagoria of a paranoid security state. This isn’t just a matter of foreign policy preferences. It’s a necessity.
