Author: Ajoy Bose
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: January 4, 2008
Introduction: The myth of military discipline
that keeps roads in the cantonment area clean and ensure instant and unquestioning
obedience to orders by superiors still makes the Indian elite go ecstatic.
India can seek pride from its progress when
viewed in contrast to the slump of our western neighbour. Yet, instead of
gloating over it, let the country be sobered by the fact that the fundamental
catalysts that have caused
Pakistan its misery are present in India as well
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the
palpable disarray across the border has once again underlined the intrinsic
fragility of Pakistan. Secure in a far more stable democratic process, we
can justifiably feel proud of the progress made by us from the days of partition
compared to the steady disintegration of our estranged half. Yet, it is a
sobering thought that the three fundamental catalysts that have led to Pakistan's
current woes are precisely those, which the chattering classes in this country
have yearned for over the past many decades.
First on the wish list of the 'India Shining'
brigade or the kind you would meet in a prosperous Delhi drawing room has
been the dream of imposing an artificial cultural ethos on the multi-ethnic
nature of Indian society to make it more manageable. For these worthies, the
varied agendas of the different religious and caste groups jostling with each
other to get ahead spelled doom for the country's progress. This the Right-wing
establishment have consistently argued could only come from a majority community
streamlining itself into a monolithic cultural whole and then forcing minority
groups to fall in line.
In Pakistan, there was no need for a debate
on this as the very concept of the Islamic state carved out of the Indian
sub-continent sought to enforce obedience to a composite culture regardless
of the many differences that existed between the various geographical regions
and social strands of the new state. Even after the disastrous consequences
of such a policy became evident with the creation of Bangladesh, successive
Pakistani leaders have shunned cultural plurality in the name of Islam, the
unifying force. Unlike in India, where the illusion of religion providing
virility have been routinely debunked by the masses ignoring the recommendations
of a sizeable section of the chattering classes, Pakistan has not been so
fortunate.
Six decades after partition, the results of
the divergent paths chosen by the two sub-continental neighbours are there
for all to see. India has struggled through communal disturbances, caste violence
and a variety of insurgencies in its own shambling democratic manner but ultimately
evolved as a stronger nation not afraid of the many conflicting voices inside
its head. Pakistan, on the other hand, by trying to brush under the carpet
contradictory tendencies that threatened to upset its Islamic applecart has
steadily moved towards terminal collapse.
The second reason for Pakistan's travails
is widely regarded as the enormous clout that the military establishment enjoys
over the democratic process in that country. A procession of Army Generals
have been able to knock over elected politicians time and again on the plea
that they were venal, corrupt or simply too incompetent to run the country.
Each time this disruption of democracy has been justified on the grounds that
flawed and slow nature of representative Government was not in pace with the
momentum Pakistan required -- one that the marching tune of the military with
its spit and polish and the halo of keeping India at bay seemed to provide.
But wait a minute; do we not hear the same
logic being spouted against corrupt and incompetent politicians in Delhi drawing
rooms and on the Indian small screen? The myth of military discipline that
keeps roads in the cantonment area clean and ensure instant and unquestioning
obedience to orders by superiors still makes the Indian elite go ecstatic.
Although the Army General is no longer a role model having been replaced by
a corporate honcho, the anti-democratic rationale here that projects the creepy
crawly neta as the antithesis of good leadership is the same that has never
allowed democracy to dig roots in Pakistan's soil.
Yet, for all the supposed perfidy of India's
politicians, look at their record compared to the spit and polish of Pakistan's
military establishment. The kind of financial corruption and abuse of power
that has been rampant across the border would have been unimaginable in this
country where elected leaders -- however dubious their intentions are -- have
some accountability. As a matter of fact, the quantum of both corruption and
human rights atrocities liked rape go up exponentially in the few insurgency-prone
border areas here where the Army has been given extraordinary powers and are
an eerie echo of stories from Pakistan under military rule.
Finally, the third and perhaps most important
aspect of Pakistan envied most by the pro-Western Indian elite has been its
ability to have a special relationship with the US. Historically, this was
facilitated by the readiness of Pakistani Generals to sign military pacts
with the Pentagon in the 1950s even as Jawaharlal Nehru hesitated before tilting
so heavily towards one global power. Indeed, it is the organic bonds between
the two military establishments of the US and Pakistan that has invariably
triumphed over the supposedly natural ties between the world's two largest
democracies.
But what has Pakistan really gained from strategic
intimacy with the US? Or what did Benazir Bhutto get except a bullet in the
head by buying into an American plan that sought to impose a new political
order in Pakistan after its earlier minion, Mr Pervez Musharraf, failed to
deliver on his own? There is incontrovertible evidence not just from the present
American sponsored chaos in Pakistan but illustrated by a series of disasters
in Latin America and West Asia over the decades that a strategic relationship
with the US is the surest way of courting disaster.
Yet, look at the hullabaloo by the Indian
establishment over missing out on a hyped up nuclear deal with Washington
that would make us a close strategic partner. Significantly, some of the biggest
cheerleaders of the deal are our top military brass and votaries of a cultural
monolith. It is important to recognise how the triumvirate of these three
interests has spelled doom for Pakistan and ensure that this is never repeated
in this country.
