Prompted and egged on by the news published in the daily Nation on 16th of April 2018 “Pakistan recalls envoy from India among tensions,” the on-going article exposes the Indian designs and agenda for the near future. In this context, the first concern about Indian foreign policy is the expression of hatred and violence towards Pakistan. The problem of Indian psyche is that since partition in August, 1947, Indians have not reconciled themselves with the idea of an independent state for Muslims by carving a portion in the North-West of the Subcontinent. The Hindus claim subcontinent as their own and none others’. This is, in short, the gist of their concept of ‘Akhand Bharat’. They are also of the view that the subcontinent is the motherland of Hindu civilization as old as the 5th or 6th Century BC, where Muslims entered as foreign invaders in 12th to 16th Century A.D. They further opine that the Muslims should have vacated their land and gone to their parent land as the British ruling class did in 1947.
But Hindus, especially diehard ones, have failed to realize that the British could vacate India only as they were scanty in number whereas during a period of 800 years, Muslims, in millions, were born, grown, died and buried in India. They were and are the children of the land as were and are the migrant Aryans of India, i.e., Hindus in the 6th Century B.C.
The un-resolving problem is that the two peoples of Muslims and Hindus have not sufficiently been socially integrated themselves as Jews and Palestinians have not been able to integrate themselves, while, on the contrary, Europeans in a short span of life have been able to do so in the newly found land of America. In the subcontinent, people to people contact has never been without mutual estrangement and fear. Only in short intervals, government at the upper level was successful; inter-marriages had taken place; and inter-twining of two ideologies and two cultures had somewhat been there. But essentially the people along with paraphernalia of life practices, traditions and convictions were different and in certain cases totally antagonistic towards each other.
In this state of affairs where intolerance and violence between the two people were aggravating and survival became a curse for the minority, what was the solution left? The best solution, as the British wisely did, was carving the large house into two separate, detached houses for two different people.
But Indians further created a problem about the status of some of the princely states such as Kashmir. The Kashmiris, despite their innumerable sacrifices at the hands of Indian security forces, are still waiting for the completion of the unfinished agenda of partition. The consequences are not merely succession of wars which were fought between the two countries but the birth of reactionary policies on both sides. If Pakistan found solace in an alliance with as far off as the US, India rushed to join Soviet Union – the other super power who would use its veto power at the United Nation (UN) against plebiscite in Kashmir. If India blasted a nuclear device, it became incumbent for Pakistan to follow suit. This unending mess and fuss, the inner turmoil in which not only the two states of India and Pakistan, but the whole of UN were caught, has not still ended despite lapse of seven decades.
The one word which can sum up the tale of seven decades is India “subverting” Pakistan. If one counts the total days since 1947 till today, there hasn’t been a day when Pakistan hasn’t been made the butt of Indian nefarious propaganda machine. Even the good relaxing activities such as listening-music from All India Radio were not without negative criticism. Indian involvement through verbal threats and border skirmishes is going on daily basis. To quote only a few remarks taken from 2016 onward, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi at Dhaka University concluded his speech by letting the world know that India played the part of severing East-Pakistan from West-Pakistan. Addressing the 72nd session of UN General Assembly on September 23, 2017 Indian Minister of External Affairs, Ms Sushma Swaraj accused Pakistan with words: “A greatest exporter of havoc, death and inhumanity” while another politician Subrahmanyam Swami showed his intentions of severing Pakistan into four parts and then to send Indian Army to control and monitor. Could there be more concrete and solid confessions than the above and still Pakistanis are to be blamed? May the people of Pakistan and UN be blessed with better judgment and kind heart!
The second Pakistani concern is about Indian efforts to create doubts in China about Pakistan and the China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC). After 1962 war with China, India realized its weakness in comparison to its Chinese military and economic might. Immediately, it began its campaign about China threat, which in due course of time achieved congruence with the objectives of US foreign policy and brought India closer to the Americans. While India was busy in presenting China as a hegemon, Soviet Russia which had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 suffered defeat in 1989 and it had to withdraw from Afghanistan without fulfilling its dream of reaching the warm waters of Arabian Sea and further on to Indian Ocean. The US was already looking for some partner to contain China which had been invited to open up to the world as a result of Nixon-Chou En Lai meeting in 1972 and which consequently had by 1989 grown to a formidable economic and military power. What an opportunity was there for Soviet ally, India, to immediately shift its overall policy and grab the chance to shake hands with the US! Meanwhile, in the post-Cold War period began terrorism and it turned very aggressive. On September 11, 2001, the terrorist activity happened at the Twin Towers of World Trade Centre New York City, New York, US. The targets of terrorist activities were then expanded to Western States as well South Asian States. Chaos was all around. Pakistan was given Hobson’s choice of “take it or leave it”. Pakistan took the whole burden on its shoulders and stood again terrorism as frontline state. The terrorists used to enter Pakistan territory through 1500 miles porous border between two countries and would hit mercilessly on targets whether it were a prayer gathering in a mosque or a school of innocent teenage children. The terrorists established their nurseries and safe havens all along Pakistani side of Western borders with Afghanistan. By virtue of strong operations designated as Zarb-e-Azb and Radul-Fasad, Pakistan Army completely destroyed the hidden nurseries of terrorists within its territory along its borders and yet, the terrorist activities have not stopped. Obviously, it means that the terrorists come from outside Pakistan. In this regard, one assumes either from India or Afghanistan or Iran or some unknown power which is involved therein. Moreover, instability in Afghanistan easily creeps in Pakistan. There are undeniable proofs that some of the terrorists are none other than Indian Hindus like Kulbhushan Yadav. And in the same breath it is claimed that Hindus were a 100% terror sponsored people from the days when their great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi were killed by home grown terrorists.
The writer is a senior analyst and an educationist based in Lahore.
shahidzubair44@gmail.com