Hashtagging nations into war

One needs to sit Modi down and show him the filmed Hiroshima attack and pray to God to bless him with better judgment

If history has failed to curb one mortal and venial sin, it has been the ever-intensifying lust for war and gluttony. Both perfected their most advanced weapons and reached the prime of their destructive capabilities in the last century. One came after the other; an international food chain restaurant opened its doors to its diabolical regime in 1940, closely followed by the first successful nuclear bomb detonation in 1945. Since then, both have travelled far and wide sparking off remarkable globalisation and recently it’s not so alluring sidekick-- nationalism.



One can understand the current hotpot scenario between India and Pakistan by analysing the overall international scenario. Alongside global warming, neo-nationalist rhetoric dominates the international political landscape since the rise of some well acknowledged populist leaders. These leaders have one thing in common; the catering to their respective blood thirsty, middle class and frustrated citizens who believe their grievances are all ascribable to the “others” residing within and outside the confines of their borders. The highly improbable construction of Mexican Wall serves as a metaphor for the rising jingoistic sentiments from America to Mumbai enveloping continents and races all vouching for their ‘exceptionalism’ dogmas.

Alternately, our neighbouring state’s branch of nationalism is a unique one. It’s inherently rooted in an intense ideology of Hindutva, which in practice has been the process of rewriting history to assert Hindu domination over India. The scary part is Modi sarkar’s political party is willing to toy with the forbidden maxims of deterrence and national security for own political gains. What is more terrifying is the deep public support that runs for this political ruthlessness. If one has ever seen eagles attack a piece of meat being casually strewn about in an open space, one can relate why the Indian anchors and some previously revered actors seemed so familiar in their actions. One would think in 2019, educated masses would know better than to show such a transparent desire for war but alas! It’s a pity when two nuclear-armed states are on the brink of mutually- assured destruction, that they miraculously and barely avoided in ’47, ’65,’71. Either the Indian media has forgotten history or are just that naïve where they think war is a solution to their problems.

Not one to believe in conspiracy theories but since the leaked footage of ‘some’ Indian actor revealing that money was actually given for supporting the Modi sarkar on social media, one can see the political hand behind the entire fiasco. It is still bewildering how media, the most powerful tool in this century, a major determinant of foreign policy construction; can be this bizarre, ignorant and vile in its speech. It is embarrassing to school the educated adults hosting programmes on national televisions and Twitter jihadis on the horrors of wars but one has to. One can only be grateful that most of these pretentious, so-called foreign degree holder Twitter crowd, alongside the ‘liberal’ anchors, aren’t formulating the foreign policy. Doomsday would have come a lot sooner for this part of the world.

Meanwhile, it is indeed a proud moment to be part of a nation that has shunned all paths leading to war by taking the ‘Gandhi’ approach. Salutations to the Prime Minister are being seen and heard all around, and for good reasons. With a keen hold of reality, sanity managed to prevail along this side of the border. This was and is crucial to detonate the impeding hate mongering sentiments coming from the other side. The most humane treatment of captured Wing Commander Abhinandan has scored some points for #TeamPak already. Sanjay Jha, the national Spokesperson at the Indian National Congress (INC), in a recent tweet acknowledged the fine gesture of Imran Khan and described the Indian media as “suited-booted, overpaid intellectually emasculated dim-witted war-mongrels”. The entire Pak nation and opposition stood alongside its PM on his peaceful talks invitation to the Indian leadership and this itself was a victory. Never has the house been this united. It was a moral victory over the latter, showing the, thankfully, rational, more stable mindset of the Quaid’s people, with IK becoming the statesman the world needs.

What Bharat fails to realise time and again is what Pakistan constantly remembers. In 1965, India suffered 11,479 casualties while according to their records 5,800 Pakistanis were killed. A mere six years later another 3,900 Indian soldiers lost their lives while a whopping 93,000 Pak soldiers were taken prisoners. The resources spent on training of a single air force pilot alongside the cost of his life are no small amount. The fall of stock markets, loss of social, economic infrastructure and the outbreak of utter chaos are just few of the pitfalls of war that the subcontinent has already witnessed multiple times. The point to note is you don’t see Pakistanis jumping like monkeys on the idea of pitching these brave soldiers in the middle of a battlefield. Instead the return of the captured pilot has probably been more effective to the national image than lobbying in Congress in Washington.



The latest updates circulating are of Pakistan having one up on India and its public knowledge that it will not sit well with the egoistical runners of the BJP. Modi in his latest statement has claimed that the Indian surgical strike within Balakot on February 26 was a pilot operation; the real games have yet to begin. One can see this as bruised ego speaking rather than sensibilities. The Indian GDP is at a 6.6% low as shown by the BJP’s final quarterly report. One needs to sit Modi down and show him the filmed Hiroshima attack, the gory details of the previous wars and pray to God to bless him with better judgment for the sake of his own people if not ours. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2019.

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