Author: H K Burki (hkburki@hotmail.com)
Publication: The Jang, Pakistan
Date: February 9, 2002
URL: http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/feb2002-daily/09-02-2002/oped/o2.htm
A new India is abroad. A muscular
Hindu republic, overbearing, intransigent. It seeks to impose absolute
domination over its South Asian neighbours and to assert itself as the
big power. A bloodthirsty bellicosity, reflecting the transformation, accompanies
the massive deployment of its forces on Pakistan's borders. And it demands
compliance with its wishes, or else.
Atal Behari Vajpayee and his RSS
colleagues deserve credit for their candour. For decades, the Congress
Party and its camp-followers had concealed with a smokescreen of secularism
an essentially Brahmanic dispensation. It was a perfect rendering of the
old saying: Ram, Ram, on the lips, a knife under the armpit. The BJP leaders
have shed the mask of hypocrisy and come out in the open with a strident
Hindu agenda. Ram, Ram is done with, knives are out. Little wonder, Kuldip
Nayar, the veteran Indian columnist, has been driven to lament bitterly
that communalism was now rife in the land of Gandhi.
Despite all the mayhem, Delhi's
designs have been frustrated thus far. Thanks primarily to General Musharraf's
firm response in the field, backed by vigorous, principled diplomacy. No
one is indispensable and that goes for Pervez Musharraf, too. One shudders
to think, however, what might have befallen the beleaguered country had
it been blessed with the services of one of those fake democrats.
The Indians have been thwarted in
the first round. Their forces are still poised on the border, however.
Sabre-rattling and brinkmanship continue to be the predominant motifs.
The big bully may, in fact, make a lunge. It is in the nature of the beast.
Not many people are left in this
country with direct personal experience of inter-action with high caste
Hindus in pre-partition India. The number of those in authority who have
been exposed to the inner workings of the Indian mind in the turbulent
years since the independence, has also shrunk. Fortunately, Pervez Musharraf's
Foreign Minister is thoroughly conversant with India's deviousness and
hegemonic aims.
There is no dearth of expert analysts,
however. Brought up mostly on a diet of Indian statements and periodic
pious declarations, they thrash about in shoals of ignorance, cocksure
and assertive. All manner of weird panaceas and fanciful compromises flow
from their prolix pens. Adopt Pakistan first policy, forget Kashmir is
one prize exhibit. Remove the provocation and the Lalajis would leave us
alone.
It looks pretty neat in print and
original. There is just one small flaw. It is oblivious of Indian ruling
elite's mindset and barely concealed agenda. You can ditch the Kashmiris,
yes, but it won't buy you any relief, much less safety. For Delhi Kashmir
is a nuisance, and it can remove the irritant at any time. All it needs
to do is to let the Kashmiris exercise the autonomy already conceded in
the Indian Constitution. No, in Delhi's book, there is only one problem:
Pakistan. Its very existence is taken as an insult to Mother India.
The BJP makes no bones about its
plan to impose on all citizens, including Muslims and Christians, Hindu
culture. That is one short step away from total absorption. It is in an
old mantra, long familiar to Muslims, and also identified by a great Mexican
writer. Octavio Paz who served as his country's ambassador in Delhi for
several years, noted Hinduism's immense power of assimilation. "Like an
enormous metaphysical boa, Hinduism slowly and relentlessly digests foreign
cultures, gods, languages, and beliefs."
High-caste Hindus nurse a bitter,
deep-seated grudge against the Muslims for having ruled over them a thousand
years. That the boa constrictor has failed to digest the Muslims must rankle
even more. Now that India has achieved great economic strength and assembled
a juggernaut with nuclear teeth, the Hindus want to settle all old scores
at one go. Here and now, Pakistan's nuclear deterrent notwithstanding.
The weekly TV programme, "Question
Time India" is an eye-opener. The panelists as well as the 150 selected
questioners, predominantly middles class Hindus, have been baying for Pakistan's
blood for months. They think they are already a Super Power. If the US
can attack Afghanistan to destroy terrorists why can't India cross the
Line of Control and do the same? No cricket with Pakistan they scream in
unison. What defies comprehension is the craven attitude of Pakistan's
very martial cricket establishment. Why must it keep begging for fixtures?
If the Indians don't want to play, let them go to Timbuktu.
TV channels, the print media with
some honourable exceptions like "The Hindu", even Bollywood films have
all been carrying on a hysterical campaign against Pakistan, demanding
condign punishment. One leading pundit of strategy has boldly gone forth
to propose that Pakistan's nuclear bluff must be called, as if it was a
game of cards. Defence Minister George Fernandes, perhaps already in the
jaws of the metaphysical boa, has boasted that India can absorb the first
nuclear strike. Even as bluster, it borders on madness.
Clearly, the Indians think they
have Pakistan at their mercy and can realise their dream of sucking it
back into the lap of Mother India. Nehru and Patel had tried to snuff it
out at its very birth. Nehru's daughter came very close to destroying it
in 1971. And she thought she had cut what remained of it down to size.
She had overlooked the political genius and resolution of a man called
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The dynamic leader, still much reviled in his homeland,
picked up the pieces, restored Pakistan to robust health and launched a
full-scale nuclear programme. It is time, the General stopped foul-mouthing
the already much-wronged man and acknowledge publicly his contribution.
Another bid to fix Pakistan was
made in 1998 with a series of nuclear tests. A K Advani, the arch Hindu
revanchist, promptly declared that Pakistan was back in the situation it
faced in December 1971, thereby hinting at the prospects of another surrender.
Somehow the Indians concluded that Pakistan lacked nuclear capability or
at least the will to demonstrate it. They were not too far off the mark.
But for the military's insistence, Nawaz Sharif would have obliged.
Then came a reversion to the Ram,
Ram ruse. They worked on Nawaz, buying his sugar and offering economic
openings for his family business. There was a well-orchestrated yatra by
Lala Vajpayee to Lahore, signing a meaningless Lahore Declaration. To their
dismay, however, Nawaz Sharif's bid to become the all-powerful Caliph was
nipped in the nick of time. In inter-state relations, one has rarely come
across the kind of venom the Indians spewed against Pakistan for changing
its government, purely its own internal affair.
Atalji was in good company. Bill
Clinton, let us not forget, was equally incensed. The US President immediately
imposed sanctions. And on his way back from his triumphant visit to India,
he stopped over in Islamabad four hours simply to heap insults on Gen Musharraf.
Those who claim that these gentlemen were acting in defence of democracy
need to have their heads examined. Bill and Atalji were both furious because
they had been deprived of a protÈgÈ they had cultivated assiduously.
The leader of Pakistan's sham democracy was to implement their agendas.
Some Pakistani scribes, more authoritative
than yours truly by far, have been taking frequent swipes at Pervez Musharraf
for his handling of the post-September 11 situation. One telephone call
from George Bush and the country's sovereignty was compromised. That is
one charge against the General. Even more scathing is the question: What
happened to the much vaunted deterrent?
One can't help wondering in which
geological stratum these gentles reside. What. Planet of the Apes? Who
had ever suggested that Pakistan's two dozen bombs were a deterrent against
Washington? In the heat of self-righteous indignation, it is forgotten
that Pakistan was a virtually bankrupt state and already under a dire threat
from the east. How could President Mu sharraf risk denying staging facilities
and over-flights to a wounded Super Power ready to pulverize all opposition
to its war of revenge against terrorists?
Pakistan's participation in the
international coalition in which India, incidentally, is a more than eager
partner, has exposed the country to certain dangers. It has brought, however,
significant and much-needed immediate economic benefits. No less important,
it has assured Western diplomatic support against a rampant India.
There is an unfortunate dimension
to this latest jigsaw of international equations. The Western Powers in
general and the United States in particular, do not understand or do not
want to know, the true nature and aspirations of a resurgent India.
One of Washington's long-standing
obsessions is the containment of China. When Nehru's forward policy resulted
in a thorough drubbing by a battle-hardened People's Liberation Army in
1962, Kennedy rushed to Panditji's assistance. Arms for six mountain divisions
were gifted and several ordnance factories followed. Now, once more, George
Bush wants to counter China's growing economic clout and military muscle.
Agreements to transfer state of the art defence technology were signed
by the Indian Defence Minister in Washington last month. Strategic cooperation
is on the anvil. Since India already enjoys full access to Russian weaponry,
it seems well set to buying its way into the super league.
In seeking a counter-weight to China,
already a near Super Power, the United States will end up facing two Super
States. For Washington does not seem to realise that India would want to
operate as a world power with goals of its own and not as an American sidekick.
What would be the fate of Pakistan?
Islamabad could throw itself at the mercy of Delhi, as some smart alecks
amongst us are already hinting. In that case, Pakistanis must be prepared
to accept the status of virtual untouchables, for the Hindu upper crust
is not going to abandon its caste system any time soon. Even after three
millennia of near serfdom, 200 million Dalits are still struggling to free
themselves. There is an honourable alternative available, and it is rather
Spartan. Maintain a minimum creditable deterrent, both in conventional
forces and nuclear weapons. And, simultaneously, acquire economic strength.
Not too tall an order, but it demands dedication.
(The writer is a well known journalist)
