Author: Ayaz Amir
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: March 13, 2004
Introduction: If Pakistanis were
to see more of India they would find their horizons expanding. They would
realise that whereas some of the hype behind "Shining India" owes more
to the advertising arts, some of it is testimony to solid achievement.
Why is India the great centre of American outsourcing? Why not Pakistan?
Why hasn't Pakistan attracted foreign capital? Why hasn't it focused on
education and hi-tech medicine?
Karachi: I am a veteran of the Lahore-Delhi
run, the short journey most Pakistanis take when embarking on the often
maddening, sometimes exciting quest of discovering India. Short by air,
that is. And beguilingly short on the map. By train and bus it is a feat
of endurance, not to be attempted by the squeamish traveller.
How many times have I been in Delhi
since 2000 and wished there was more to urban sprawl than a never-ending
sea of traffic? A modern purgatory is what the Indian capital most closely
resembles as the evening rush hour starts.
India at present is caught in a
mood defined by two slogans: "Shining India" and, its next-of-kin, the
"feel-good factor." India is supposed to be on a shining path of development
and its people are supposed to be feeling great about their current level
of well-being.
That at least is the prevailing
mythology and something which you have no reason to disbelieve if television,
swank hotels (real good ones) and the shopping malls of Gurgaon, the new
city with its big farmhouses which has sprung up on the road to Jaipur
in South Delhi, are your only windows on reality.
Never mind the decrepitude of Uttar
Pradesh, the lawlessness endemic in parts of Bihar and elsewhere in the
north, or the 400 million Indians for whom Shining India is a bewitching
image on a television screen.
Never mind bad cell phone connections
during the morning hours. "The travails of Shining India," as a friend
wearily remarked when our cell conversation got cut the third time.
What would be the Pakistani equivalent
of "Shining India?" "Pakistan First," I suppose, the quick-fire slogan
designed to cover if not explain the belated dawning of wisdom on questions
ranging from Afghanistan to Kashmir.
Fuelling the "feel-good factor"
is a surge in middle class consumerism: cell phones, designer clothes,
more TV channels and, of course, more cars on the road, the phenomenon
which gives Delhi its purgatorial look.
Adding to the "feel-good factor"
is the new upsurge in relations with Pakistan. Like other things, this
too is credited to the wisdom of India's answer to Confucius, Atal Behari
Vajpayee.
If the BJP wins, this is the second
election the party would owe in some measure to Pakistan's military ruler,
General Musharraf, the first being the election in 1999 after Kargil. Vajpayee
and his party played the war card then, now it's the peace card. The BJP
probably doesn't realise it but it has a strong ally in Pakistan's military
government. Pakistan too should have the sense to realise the advantages
of dealing with the BJP. The BJP won't deliver anything on a platter. So
there's no room for any illusions on Kashmir or of a breakthrough on any
other front.
No point in forgetting that the
subcontinent's leading quality is cussedness, a genius for cultivating
belligerence and stubbornness often for no reason at all, or for reasons
hard to fathom. But at least the BJP talks peace and raises the peace flag
from time to time, something which the Congress when in power, in fear
of being seen as soft on Pakistan, was unable to do.
The two parties are sprung from
different genes, a fact which tells on their outlook: the Congress secular
but taking the Muslim vote for granted and feeling more comfortable with
a hard line on Pakistan. The BJP peddling a frankly communal and obscurantist
line but a bit more sensible and pragmatic on Pakistan and, at least in
this election, not taking the Muslim vote for granted.
In a better world, the BJP's incipient
Nazism (let there be no doubts on this score, the RSS, the BJP's spiritual
parent, being a subcontinental variation of fascism) would be an opportunity
for Pakistan to look good in contrast, a chance to invite invidious comparisons
at India's expense. But Pakistan, alas, went down the obscurantist path
much before India discovered the BJP. And since it is still stuck there,
unable or unwilling to map out a new journey, this opportunity remains
unfulfilled.
Pakistanis proclaim and often revel
in their country's strategic importance. They ignore the regional ghetto
to which, more by accident than design, their country has been reduced.
Consider these facts.
Although a neighbour, Iran is not
on the travel or mental path of most Pakistanis. Nor does it figure much
in Pakistani calculations, which is a pity considering that once both countries
were close.
Afghanistan is a battleground and
therefore not much of a travel destination or a learning experience. It
is also the source of bitter memories. A generation of Pakistani generals
sought "strategic depth" in its bitter terrain, only to reap a harvest
of pain and frustration.
The wide arc to the north is blocked
as much by high mountains as continuing strife in Afghanistan. That leaves
India. The natural thing, sanctified by history and dictated by geography,
would have been for Pakistan and India to turn to each other.
It didn't happen this way for obvious
reasons. Partition and the bloodletting accompanying it left painful memories
behind. Both countries drifted into war over Kashmir. They fought another
war in '65, still another one in 1971.
Perhaps these were necessary wars,
rites of passage for both countries before they could emerge from the shadows
and leave the past behind. Not all the old fears have gone, not all the
old shibboleths completely demolished. Two generations of Indians and Pakistanis
grew up distrusting and demonising each other. This legacy won't go away
in a hurry.
Even so, a lot has happened. Both
countries have moved on. The world around them is different too. This may
not call for friendship, a word there is no point in romanticising. But
at least it calls for rewriting the old script of confrontation.
If Pakistanis were to see more of
India they would find their horizons expanding. They wouldn't be enamoured
of India. No danger of that happening. But, given a modicum of luck, they
would realise that whereas some of the hype behind "Shining India" owes
more to the advertising arts than anything more real, some of it is testimony
to solid achievement.
India has moved ahead in certain
fields. Cyberabad, the computer centre of Hyderabad, I have seen from the
outside and it's a wonderful thing. I wish we had something of the sort
in Pakistan.
Why is India the great centre of
American outsourcing? Why not Pakistan? Why hasn't Pakistan attracted foreign
capital? Why hasn't it focused on education and hi-tech medicine? These
are the things we should be competing in. We should be paying more attention
to education otherwise we'll be left so far behind we'll have a hard time
catching up.
Chandrababu Naidu has turned Hyderabad
around, no doubt about it. He has his critics but then which achiever doesn't?
In about eight years Hyderabad, once famous for its exquisite culture and
lordly ways, has been transformed into a centre of hi-tech industry. How
did Naidu do it? Not by waving a magic wand but by providing dependable
infrastructure. That and not the climate brought multinationals to Hyderabad.
This is what we should be doing
instead of frittering away our energies in aimless and stultifying pursuits.
In Pakistan it is not Islam in danger but good sense and rationality.
If the great white elephant that
the National Defence College in Islamabad is can somehow bring itself to
do it, it should make an India tour a compulsory part of its syllabus.
This would be an educative experience for its students. This can be done
on a reciprocal basis with budding Napoleons from India visiting Pakistan.
We need not be friends. Let's keep this for another time. But at least
let us try to be intelligent rivals.
By arrangement with Dawn
