Author: A.R.Kanangi
Publication: Afternoon Despatch
& Courier
Date: November 1, 2003
Introduction: It is sheer madness
to think of cricket matches between India and Pakistan when Gen. Musharraf
is promoting terror and killing thousands of our people in Kashmir
Is there a method in the madness?
I hope there is. Dozens of so-called peace initiatives. Ferry service to
Karachi. Restoration of air traffic. More buses to Lahore. A bus service
from Srinagar to PoK. And cricket matches.
Even as Delhi is making these peace
offers, there is an exchange of fire along the Line of Control. At the
slightest provocation, the Pakistani army along the border opens fire.
And in all the camps inside Pakistani
territory, a short distance away from the border, fierce, fanatic persons
- Afghans and other mercenaries, Pakistanis - are receiving intensive training
in the use of sophisticated arms, in assault strategies. Once the training
is over, the terrorists armed to the teeth, are sneaked into Indian territory.
Freedom fighters
And Pakistan's intelligence agency
- the ISI - is carrying on continuing operations inside Jammu and Kashmir.
It has already got some fanatic Hurriyat leaders to side with them. These
leaders are hell bent on getting Kashmir to join Pakistan. There must be
some reason why they are doing it. There is little doubt that Pakistan
is sending a lot of money to its henchmen in Kashmir. There are quite a
few unemployed boys who are willing to become militants and wage Pakistan's
war. It is as good as any other job - but with better pay and perks.
In the meanwhile, Pakistan is carrying
on global propaganda that the "freedom fighters" of Kashmir are being killed.
They provide statistics to prove their point.
By no stretch of the imagination
can these Pakistan agents be called "freedom fighters". They are persons
in the fray of Kashmir waging a war for Pakistan - a proxy war. They are
not fighting for freedom or for a separate Kashmir. It would be wrong to
call such people separatists. They are least bothered about freedom or
about achieving a sovereign state of their own. Their mission is quite
clear: the armed terrorists - a small number - working for Kashmir are
paid agents who are out on a killing spree in order to further Pakistan's
designs to grab the state.
There is an elected government in
place. Lakhs of people have participated in the elections. More would have
done so if there was no threat from the militants. People want peace, they
want normalcy to return. They are fed up with the violence. People in Kashmir
are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that there is no democracy
in Pakistan and that they will have to, if they join Pakistan, live in
a country where there is army rule. Only two days ago, an important opposition
leader who criticised the role of military generals was arrested in Pakistan.
Political parties are suppressed and a stern line is drawn beyond which
nobody can go. People do not have freedom in Pakistan. And unlike India,
Pakistan is neither a liberal or a developing country. Kashmiris know that
they can criticise Mufti and Vajpayee and ask them to go to hell.
The freedom-loving people of Kashmir
are subjected to violence. Perhaps it is not known that more Muslims have
been killed than Hindus. Every now and then, there are bomb blasts in which
innocent people are being killed. The Pakistani terrorists have no compunction
about killing women and children.
And General Musharraf is evidently
financing and protecting anti-India terrorists in his country. There appears
to be a regular army of terrorists in Pakistan. There are terrorist groups
which have a solid base there. They carry on operations from Pakistan and
supervise the proxy war.
The US itself is at last acknowledging
that terrorists are being pushed into Kashmir for carrying out Pakistan's
war. It has confirmed at last that there is cross-border terrorism. If
admits that while this has become less, armed militants are still being
sneaked into Kashmir.
India does not send terrorists into
Pakistan for carrying out counter operations. We also could have done it,
but we are totally against acts of terrorism. Not a single Indian terrorist
act has been perpetrated in Pakistan.
Peace initiatives in India do not
have any meaning when General Musharraf is continuing the proxy war in
Kashmir.
There was an eyeball to eyeball
confrontation along the Indo-China border some years ago. There were exchanges
of fire between Chinese and Indian soldiers. There is a major border dispute
between India and China. It must be said to the credit of China it did
not send terrorists into India to carry out violent campaigns.
Gradually, the relations between
China and India have improved. We are no longer talking in terms of war
or the use of force in any way. We have decided to sit at the negotiating
table.
This makes sense. There is no armed
confrontation between the two countries. In fact, China, Russia and India
are thinking of forming an axis with a view to achieving global balance
of power.
China and India have firmly decided
that the border dispute will be resolved through peaceful negotiations,
through give and take strategies.
The same scenario can develop between
India and Pakistan if the General calls back his hounds from Kashmir. Let
Kashmir be a disputed issue between the two countries. The long border
should not have a single soldier from both the countries. Terrorism should
end completely.
Both India and China are underdeveloped
countries. Lakhs of people are living below the poverty line in India and
Pakistan. It is criminal that we spend crores on defence. We are participating
in an arms, nuclear race. How weird that we should spend so much on war
preparations when in many parts of both the countries, lakhs of people
are not able to get some drinking water. And who are th real beneficiaries
of these war preparations?
Arms merchants round the world do
not want peace between Pakistan and India.
They are jubilant that Kashmir may
even become a nuclear flashpoint. The governments of some of the countries
in Europe - and the US and Soviet Union too - would not mind if the confrontation
between India and Pakistan continues. When some two decades ago, there
was a long-drawn war between Iraq and Iran, the arms merchants had a whale
of a time. They supplied arms to both the countries.
Arms merchants
To the arms merchants, there is
nothing like friend and foe. There are quite a few vested interests which
would like Indo-Pak confrontation to continue.
And Delhi is making peace overtures
even while Pakistan is not prepared to defuse tension and put on hold the
Kashmir issue.
So long as General Musharraf is
promoting terror, it is absurd to think of any cricket match between India
and Pakistan.
We can freely play ping pong with
China, but there can be no play between India and Pakistan.
There could be also undesirable
happenings if some of the Delhi proposals are implemented. Opening all
our doors may expose us to great danger. The terrorists are likely to seize
the opportunity to pose greater danger to our cities.
Unless there is a China-like solution,
we cannot have any truck with Pakistan.
We are not asking Pakistan to give
up its claim on Kashmir. We are only asking it to freeze the issue so that
all contacts can be resumed and the possibility of peaceful, purposeful
dialogue explored.
And until and unless Pakistan agrees,
let us forget about cricket.
It is sheer madness to think of
cricket matches, ferry and bus services when terror continues to be unleashed
by Pakistan and thousands of our innocent people continue to be killed.
Thank God, there is Mr. Bal Thackeray.
He will ensure there is no cricket match between India and Pakistan.
