Author: Tavleen Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 9, 2002
URL: http://www.indian-express.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=4048
Introduction: Rumsfeld should ask
Musharraf to take him on a tour of Pakistan madrassas, where he might find
the breeding ground for terrorists. It is this education that has transformed
Pakistan from a country not very different from India to another, more
dangerous kind of land together
Curiously, the most significant
sentence in General Pervez Musharraf's speech in Almaty last week has gone
almost unnoticed.
In his first open endorsement of
terrorism since 9/11, he said, ''We must ask ourselves whether the present
situation has been brought about because of a sudden eruption of violence
and terrorism by misguided individuals and desperate groups that threaten
to destabilise the international community. Or is there a deeper malaise
and terrorism is a symptom of this malaise''.
The General is a military man and
not a politician, so he is probably unaware that there always is a ''deeper
malaise'' when politics turns to violence.
The problem is that in countries
that like to think of themselves as civilised, it is considered wrong to
approve of terrorism whether it is born out of a deep malaise or a shallow
one.
When Donald Rumsfeld visits the
subcontinent next week the most useful thing he can do is to take this
up with the General and explain to him that Osama bin Laden also acted
out of what he saw as a ''deeper malaise''.
Does that justify the suicide bombing
of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? The American defence secretary
would also be doing us all an enormous favour if he asked Musharraf to
take him on a small tour of Pakistani madrassas.
He might discover the breeding ground
for both Islamic fundamentalism and terrorists. The most famous products
of these schools were the Taliban (and it is important to remember that
taliban in Urdu means students) but the terrorists who come into India
to kill women and children also receive their early training in these schools.
Not through weapons training but by creating such a deep sense of malaise
among young Pakistanis that they grow up obsessed with a hatred of India
and Hindus. They also grow up obsessed with the idea that Kashmir has to
be returned to Pakistan and that the only way to get it back is through
jihad.
It is this Islamic education that
has transformed Pakistan from a country not very different to India not
so very long ago to another more dangerous kind of country altogether.
When I first visited Pakistan 20
years ago, it was so much like India that it was unnerving. The only real
difference then being that everyone you met was Muslim and instead of democracy
they were ruled by a military dictator with a deep commitment to Islamise
Pakistan.
That he had more than succeeded
I discovered on my most recent trip to Pakistan last summer. I was doing
street interviews for a TV programme in the bazaars of Lahore and Karachi,
and whether it was unemployed workers, veiled women or educated young men,
everyone I talked to said they were prepared to die fighting for Kashmir.
Even more worrying was their hatred
for Hindus and India. One young man in Lahore showed me an Urdu newspaper
which he said had a story on Indian children being recruited to fight in
Kashmir.
When he showed me the newspaper
I pointed out that the uniforms the ''Indian soldiers'' were wearing in
the picture were not Indian army or police uniforms.
Nobody in that crowd of about a
hundred young men believed me and had I carried on the discussion much
longer, I may not have lived to tell the tale.
Incidentally, the venom the young
men spewed against India was so explosive we had to exclude many of the
interviews from the programme.
What Islam has done to Pakistan
is transform it into Gujarat on a larger scale and without any Hindus left
to kill.
I mention Gujarat deliberately because
I want to make the point that we have our share of politicians and religious
groups who believe in mixing religion with politics. Narendra Modi would
feel completely at home in Pakistan as would his fellow travellers like
Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia.
The difference is that in India
they continue to represent a minority view and - dangerous though it always
is to make political predictions - this will become evident when the Bharatiya
Janata Party finds itself thrown out of power after the next general election.
In Pakistan it is the liberals and
moderates who are so much in the minority as to have become almost irrelevant.
So, when our government asks General
Musharraf to dismantle the ''infrastructure of terrorism'' it does not
fully understand what it asks. Indian hackles rise when the General repeats
in all his speeches that Kashmir runs in the blood of every Pakistani,
but we do not realise that if he ever dares stop the Kashmir jihad he will
no longer be able to rule Pakistan.
Having said that, though, he must
understand that he cannot continue to speak openly in support of terrorism
in the forums of the world because every time he does, he signals to jihadi
groups in his country that he is still with them.
And, that although the battlefield
of Afghanistan is now temporarily closed for action, Kashmir is still open.
If America wants its global war against terrorism to be taken seriously
it must get its ally to stop his search for the ''deeper malaise'' and
get him to first deal with its symptom: terrorism.
