And when it’s about time to give up fighting geography
In courts of law and justice, the passion, aggression, bravery, righteousness of cause, selflessness and all things noble and admirable are reduced to smithereens by a clever counsel who can quote the right precedent, at the right time. Need I say more?
Tucked uncomfortably between two bitter brothers and an avowed enemy, Pakistan continues to exist, even obstinately persists in one of the most hostile neighbourhoods in the world. Geography couldn’t have been more unkind, more cruel to this country of 200 million souls. Cornered, distrusted and always inches away from being labelled ‘rogue’, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan scampers from crisis to crisis, tragedy to tragedy, debacle to debacle. The keen historians remember the times it escaped complete ruin, the impassioned scribes have witnessed the moments its pyrrhic victories drained its vigour and shine.
Question, however, is what hope a country has in a dog eat dog world when its three out of four neighbours are ill at ease with it and recount — whenever an occasion pops up — all the instances when they were dealt a wrong hand? Our brother on the west side, Afghanistan, has a long list of grievances, be it from Pakistan’s role in ruining it in the first place, seeking an ever-elusive strategic depth or returning Afghan refugees at a time when the country is under immense turmoil.
Pakistan, India, Iran and Afghanistan, all four neighbours refuse to behave with neighbourly grace and restraint and are yet to learn how to shed undue interest in each other’s ‘state of affairs’. The newfound affection between Afghanistan and India with later pledging a billion dollar financial assistance to show its ‘abiding support for a unified, sovereign, democratic, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan’ is being interpreted in Pakistan as birth of an evil nexus between a war ravaged, mercenary country and an old enemy turned regional bully.
India, once famed for not aligning itself in shackles of dependence has recently found bonhomie in Americans. Iran, on the other hand, is all set to reap benefits from loosening of sanctions. India, the former founding member of Non-Aligned Movement, has finally realised that in this bad, bad neighbourhood, it is always good to have sole the hyperpower on its side. Never been comfortable with and around both China and Pakistan, India has made pals across seven seas, that has naval presence in all of them. Considering Pakistan a permanent nuisance and China as a competitor to reckon with, India aims to draw Afghanistan, the so-called graveyard of civilisations, and Iran, flag-bearer of one of the most ancient civilization, nearer. In the meantime, we want to execute Kulbhushan, which unfortunately for the time being we can’t, and free Kashmir.
Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan, goes our official stance. Since time immemorial, we have been demanding that the Kashmir issue must be resolved as per the dictates of UN Security Council resolutions. The death of Burhan Wani last July brought back the Kashmir issue on the tellies and broadsheets across Pakistan. The old flame that was on the back burner with sporadic rallies featuring the usual suspects of Kashmir cause, a public holiday on 5th of February, occasional talk shows highlighting the ‘plight of poor Kashmiri brothers’ kept it alive till something new, something big, something Burhan Wani eventually fell in our lap.
Since their inception, both Pakistan and India have tried every trick up their sleeve and every sleazy tactic in their armoury ranging from fighting two full-scale wars and many low intensity battles, pulled each other’s leg on international forums, acquired nuclear capability to level things out and still spend billions of dollars on acquiring weapons. I didn’t want to quote Einstein’s full definition of insanity here, as you can google it yourself. About time we try a different way of doing business with each other. The ICJ staying Kulbhushan has a lot to tell us, dearest sirs and ma’ams, and it ain’t telling us all things soothing, all things good.
After surviving the war hysteria, catalysed by flag-waving, chest-thumping attitude and spearheaded by media outlets of both countries, the recent verdict has taken the things to a new level, a level where black coat donning, wig wearing folks pettifog and talk and twist ‘matters of grave importance’ around.
In courts of law and justice, the passion, aggression, bravery, righteousness of cause, selflessness and all things noble and admirable are reduced to smithereens by a clever counsel who can quote the right precedent, at the right time. Need I say more?
Robert Frost, the beloved American poet, in one of his widely read poem, ‘Mending Wall’ portrays a neighbour who insists on wisdom inherent in raising boundaries and fences as it was handed over to him by his father and repeatedly reminds his interlocutor of benefits of erecting fences, one of them being a time-tested formula that keeps neighbours dear to each other, ‘Good fences make good neighbours.’ he says. The dilemma of our situation is that we plan to build concrete walls on our borders let alone fence them, but when we take our case to higher podiums, we are reminded of another line by Frost that goes like, Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
PS: The road less travelled does not always lead to victory or success, dearest sis and ma’ams. It may also lead to ruin, damnation and isolation.
