What should Pakistan do?
Recently, Bharat again revealed its traditional Machiavellian mindset when its Foreign Minister Shushma Swaraj, in her speech at the UN General Assembly, stated; “We don’t need four points; we need just one — give up terrorism and let us sit down and talk.” Shusma Swaraj thus summarily dismissed Nawaz Sharif’s four-point proposal to iron out differences between the two neighbours.
Bharat’s repetitious harping on ‘terrorism’ is not without purpose. It has devious motives — namely, to evade the long–standing Kashmir dispute, sidetrack world attention from its repeated cross–border incursions, conceal the nefarious activities of RAW in Baluchistan and Karachi, curb the tempo of Zarb–e–Azb and hinder development of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.
It is one of the great misfortunes of the sub-continent that Pak-India relations have never been honest and open-minded. On the contrary, they have been acrimonious and recriminatory. Even before 1947, Congress—Muslim League dealings were far from pleasant.
India, in fact, has not reconciled itself to the idea of Pakistan. Even after 68 years the Hindu mindset has not changed. Bharat has never missed an opportunity to malign Pakistan, damage its integrity and crush its pride. In 1971, it attacked Pakistan and separated its eastern wing. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was elated. K. Subramanyam, the then director of the institute of defence studies, spoke his mind: “The breakup of Pakistan is in our interest and we have an opportunity the like of which will never come again.”
The roots of Bharati animus lie in the distant past. A thousand years of Muslim rule injected a deep sense of inferiority in the Hindu psyche. Decades later, after the fall of Muslim rulers, Chattarpati Sivaji crawled out of the woodworks and the long repressed virulence came to the fore. Weird characters like Gowalkar, Sawarkar, Moonje and Hedgewar of the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) dreamt of establishing a fascist Hindu regime which would wipe out the “snakes” ie the Muslims. The Hindu loves to flaunt his anti–Muslim, anti–Pakistan sentiments as if it were a matter of pride for him. The Shiv Sena, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), Hindu Vishwa Parishad, etc, are the progeny of these psychopaths.
Narendra Modi is a direct political descendant of this crazy pack. With him in the saddle, the Hindu mindset stands more twisted today than it was yesterday. Modi was an RSS activist before he went into politics. Right–wing groups campaigned for him and brought him into power. Even today the RSS and the Saffron Brigade spit venom: speak of “demolishing Pakistan at the first opportunity” and “driving the Muslims from Bharat as the Spaniards had driven the Moors from Spain.” No wonder Modi has an anti–Muslim agenda.
So astonishing are the vagaries of realpolitik that Narendra Modi, once persona non grata in the United States, is today its blue—eyed boy. The massacre of a thousand innocent and defenceless Muslims in Gujarat during Modi’s chief minister-ship is “forgotten and all is forgiven.”
Modi’s immense popularity and his meteoric rise had so dazzled the United States that President Obama some time ago paid a second state visit to India. Obama’s “pyar bhara namaskar” (greetings dripping with love ), warm embrace, backslapping camaraderie, special friendship, civil nuclear deal, support in UN for a permanent seat, strategic alliance, a presence in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean region-all this bonhomie and all those favours, no doubt, boosted India’s hegemonic ambitions and kindled its desire to play the regional policeman.
Obama’s excessive pampering and catering to Modi’s every whim is likely to make him more arrogant, headstrong and harden his stance on Kashmir. Kashmir has been hanging fire for the last six decades. All Pak-India summits since the nineteen-fifties have failed or remained inconclusive. Bharat has repeatedly flouted UN declarations on Kashmir. Even today it is trying to crush the defenceless Kashmiris and deprive them of their right to self–determination. India wants Pakistan to forget Kashmir and hates to see it referred to as a disputed territory. Modi must recognise what the rest of the world does, namely, that Kashmir is a disputed territory. Election gimmickry, extravagant claims, Mumbai accusations and political abracadabra will not extinguish the mighty flame that is Kashmir. If the deadlock persists Kashmiris will have no option but to take up arms as did the Algerians, Libyans and the Iranians in the recent past.
What then should Pakistan do in such a situation? Pakistan should impress upon the international community with all the vehemence at its command that Kashmir is a highly sensitive issue, an Asian tinderbox. Pakistan must urge the UN to step in, fulfill its responsibility and force a recalcitrant Bharat to settle the dispute. Delhi may engineer a demographic transmogrification, even resort to mass slaughter but it will not be able to run away from or erase the reality that is Kashmir. Kashmir is at the top of Pakistan’s agenda and will remain so.
“India is a spoilt child of the world”, said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto half a century ago in the National Assembly. “India gets away with all its machinations by irrational explanations. Powers which are not familiar with India‘s mentality are only too eager to accept India‘s policy at face value. That makes it possible for India to continue to menace the peace of the region and the world.” Bhutto was right. He had discovered Bharat‘s “spoilt child syndrome”. Bhutto‘s pronouncement still holds good.
