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Attack Pakistan, sure!
Here’s
how to go about it
Sach Kanwal
Singh
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By
attacking Pakistan, or
even by indulging in such irresponsible talk, New Delhi
and the saffron lobby are actually helping the terrorists in
Pakistan. Because that gives ammunition to the grist mills. The
problem is that Indian brahamanical forces also stand to gain from
such hawking statements as it polarizes opinion, society, and votes.
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 At
a time when the Indian establishment, middle class, large sections
of mainstream media, particularly electronic media are going hammer
and tongs after Pakistan, it is time for the saner elements to step
back and have a hard good look at all aspects of the problem.
No doubt the
terror strikes have left
India and rest
of the civilised world gasping at the daring and meticulous
planning, and New Delhi has, as Gautam Adhikari put it recently,
"some mud on India’s face as a result" but may be this is exactly
what should spur India to try some bold thinking.
Okay, take it
granted for a moment that it is indeed
Pakistan. But
what does one mean by Pakistan? The Government of Pakistan? The ISI?
The Army? The militants? The Al Qaida? So many terror attacks around
the world emanate from fringe groups. Many of these could be in
Pakistan. But will India be attacking these groups when it will
think of hitting out against Pakistan?
Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, who masterminded the 9/11 operation of 2001, was captured
in Pakistan; Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri are probably
hiding and leading al-Qaeda from the Pakistan-Afghan non-existent
border, jihadi terrorist groups work from inside Pakistan. Dawood
Ibrahim continues to be sheltered by Pakistani.
Will attacking
Pakistan
be equivalent to attacking these people?
Will
India not be
attacking the people of Pakistan? The very people who are India's
only hope as they are the ones suffering, they are the ones who have
rejected the mullahs, they are the ones who are again and again
choosing democracy over dictators despite adverse conditions.
This is the time
when
India should understand that one form of attack is to befriend a
people, join them in their struggle against terrorists, and thus rid
oneself of terror.
This is the time
when
Pakistan needs help, when India must reach out to Pakistan's people
and tell them that it understands their problems, that it too is
facing similar problems, and that it is possible to fight.
But before that
India
will have to contend with its own brahmanical agenda and apply the
correctives. New Delhi is shy of appealing directly to the Muslim
world because its own record in dealing with the Muslim population,
in addressing its arrested development, in empowering the Muslim
minority, is extremely poor.
It cannot make
this an issue because the Christian world will ask
New Delhi
about its credentials on security of Christians, and
India's response
to reprisal terrorism unleashed by Hindutva forces.
India could have
become a partner in a global approach to tackle the problem head-on.
All it needs to do is to first set its own house in order quickly,
and for that its entire approach to the way New Delhi
deals with its minorities must change.
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You can do the
same thing and achieve the same results by either demolishing
mosques, attacking Golden Temple or
Hazratbal or by talking of dropping bombs on Lahore.
For decades, the BJP-RSS-VHP has been indulging in such talk, now
major sections of Indian middle classes brought up on neo-liberal
economic ideas and depoliticized to massive and shameful extent are
doing the same. |
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India has so far
not said it clearly that it will rather help in stability of
Pakistan. New Delhi is seen in Pakistan as the hegemonic force that
has not made its peace with its neighbour’s existence. This has to
change.
Instead, Indian
hawkish sections are talking of striking at and inside
Pakistan,
little realizing that they are harming the cause rather than solving
the problem.
No one can beat
the menace of Islamist extremism that provides ideological energy
for jihadi terror by making
Pakistan an
unstable and economically desperate country.
By attacking
Pakistan,
or even by indulging in such irresponsible talk,
New Delhi
and the saffron lobby are actually helping the terrorists in
Pakistan. Because that gives ammunition to the grist mills. The
problem is that Indian brahamanical forces also stand to gain from
such hawking statements as it polarizes opinion, society, and votes.
You can do the
same thing and achieve the same results by either demolishing
mosques, attacking
Golden Temple or
Hazratbal or by talking of dropping bombs on
Lahore.
For decades, the BJP-RSS-VHP has been indulging in such talk, now
major sections of Indian middle classes brought up on neo-liberal
economic ideas and depoliticized to massive and shameful extent are
doing the same.
One saw
sloganeering of Bharat Mata Ki Jai during rapes in Orissa, one heard
nationalist slogans in
Jammu when
Kashmiris were hunted and highway blockaded, and one is hearing the
same thing now.
It was for
New Delhi
to tell its people that Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Pakistan Murdabad is
not the same thing, but the brahamanical forces have made it seem
like so.
 For those who
may not be amenable to cold logic but at least a nuclear weapon when
they find one, our point is simple:
Pakistan is not
Iraq. It does have WMD. The Indian media and establishment forget to
mention it. It has a complicated terrain, and its armed forces have
sections that may not shy away from using the WMD if push comes to
shove.
The only thing
that can succeed in such a scenario is to take the inimical
perception out of it.
New Delhi should
be working to ensure sustainability of
Pakistan’s
democratic experiment. And anyone desirous of keeping the terrorist
out of India must understand that they will have be kept out of
Pakistan.
For that, Pakistan needs assistance. Largely economic assistance.
The G-7 must
come forward, the Obama administration must pursue this path,
China
must help its friend at this juncture. The trick lies in pulling
Pakistan out of this terror bind in order to save others. It will
help the US and it will help India.
Only forces it
will not help are Indian brahamanical forces. Will the people of
India
allow themselves to be held hostage to such machinations of these
forces that pervade across political spectrum, or will they see
through their tactics and rise to the challenge? Therein lies
whether we will rid ourselves of the terror, or whether New Delhi
would become the new terror bully in the region?
3 December
2008
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