India and the perils of being a peacenik

With definite certainty the launch of BrahMos NG deep inside Pakistan on March 9, 2022 was not an accident. It was deliberately fired, under an established pattern to test our preparedness; and sadly, our response was meek, prudence-laced and ‘balanced’ at best. And this was ‘ostensibly’ under the influence of aman ki asha and/or due to this or that doctrine.

One has always wondered what kind of Pakistan would India want, after it defangs our politico-military potential. Without subscribing to flowery English in academic gibberish and pseudo-intellectual iterations, the answer is plain and simple…a plaint Pakistan. A Pakistan living under the shadow of Maha Bharata ‘happily ever after’, thanking the Brahmans for the bounty that is friendship with India. A Pakistan where a pro-India elite or ashhrafiyya calls the shots and all major decisions go through New Delhi. A Pakistan where Muslims are relegated to second class citizenship, with aman ki asha, peaceniks of all shades and colours and proponents of this or that march reigning supreme. A Pakistan where Pakistaniyyat is a crime. A Pakistan where Islam itself is only a personal choice, having nothing to do with our raison d’etre.

I dare those shaking their heads in disbelief to propose an alternative model, before I throw facts and figures for them to absorb.

In 1971, India liberated East Pakistan from the ‘exploitative’ clutches of West Pakistan, to usher an era of unprecedented prosperity and friendship with the successor state Bangladesh. Is Bangladesh today happy with an overbearing India? Is Nepal okay with the blockade and brazen interference in her internal affairs that India blatantly resorts to? Is Maldives really independent? Why did Sri Lanka show the spine to ally with Pakistan to defeat insurgency that was aided and abetted by India?

Living beside a larger neighbour with an antagonistic past is either neighbour’s way or the highway. And those hiding their necks in sands of peace cannot see that history does not repeat itself. Our forefathers did not have any doubts about Shuddhi and Sanghtan movements by the predecessors of today’s RSS and we should not have any qualms about the blood on the Indian saffron. Ask Kashmiris how they feel under the human cage that India has turned Kashmir into. Open jail is an understatement. Talk to the military veterans in Assam, who overnight lost their Indian nationality, due to their lesser Hinduness.

And peaceniks amongst us who untiringly speak ‘their master’s voice’ should reflect on the blessing that Pakistan was for our forefathers, is for us and would remain for our generations. An independent Pakistan, that is a thorn in the side of India, till the time, the larger India demonstrates equal large-heartedness, through sincere, concrete, undeniable, verifiable and irreversible advances for peace.

And those elsewhere in our polity harbouring doubts, if any, about our staying power or stamina against a bellicose India, citing this or that figure should know that wars are not data-driven alone. In Operational Analysis, we are told to also put a value on and compare ‘motivation, will to die, the power of faith and a just cause’ etc…the so-called force-multipliers. Do we not learn from Allah’s mujahids, the rag-tag Afghans, who made two invincible superpowers bite the dust in our lifetime, before our own eyes?

And those thinking all would be hunky-dory after this or that doctrine prevails to achieve peace with India, and the threat to Pakistan would diminish, should know…would India also think likewise, given her own security calculus vis-à-vis China. Those with basic strategic insight would know that threat is a combination of ‘capability and intent’. Capability acquired overtime can translate into threat, as intentions can change overnight… with any staged attack anywhere in India, to take out the Pakistani thorn forever.

Smaller nations like Pakistan and Israel survive on ideology, morals and principles, more than on geo-economics alone; although ‘geo-economics’ for a state like ours is a close second after ‘geo-strategy’. It was sad that our response at all levels was belated and not biting, after India launched its probing attack on 9 March, following a sustained and pre-meditated strategy.

The beleaguered Prime Minister Imran Khan, taking a break from the dirty, reprehensible and unwarranted political drama underway should have spoken to declare ‘our sovereign right to respond’…accident or no accident. This might have shored up his political fortunes in a time of great need. And so should have been the response by other stakeholders. But then the propensity for palace intrigues seldom sees anything above and beyond self, clan, party etc... National interest can wait.

And if above is not the case, why would all and sundry ratchet up political temperature domestically just before the 75^th anniversary of Pakistan Day on 23^rd March, when an OIC delegation and other important personalities were attending. Unfortunately, it is ‘ostensibly’ this dirty drama that discouraged Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who was to be the chief guest. But then we are colour-blind as a political class, whose only interest in Pakistan is limited, only and only, to power-grab and financial gains, in whichever way possible. One hopes the combined pro-stability urgings by friends like China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and OIC lead to pro-Pakistan outcomes.

Our future strategic calculus, peaceniks and their layered penetration aside, would remain dominated by our existential fears vis-à-vis a larger, hostile and increasingly intolerant India. My heart aches at the fearful voice of that little girl in a social media clip, telling her mother, Ami masjid tore rahey hain (Mom they are demolishing the mosque), as she sees the mob desecrating and demolishing her neighborhood mosque in India. And the daily humiliation of Indian women at the hands of RSS vigilantes for wearing hijab should be an eye-opener for the proponents of mera jism meri marzi and peaceniks, with no spine. That is how a secular India treats her own citizenry, systematically, brazenly and fearlessly, if they are minority…and not mainstream.

Without showing timely resolve, now and in future; one is afraid there would be more ‘accidents’ to follow. And our hesitant protestations would degenerate into appeasement, with the world one day asking us to denuclearise, citing India’s apparently different reasons to remain armed. And if the balloon ever goes up again on staged and/or flimsy pretexts for any reason, Pakistan would be ukrained.

Hey jurm-e-zaifi ki saza marg-e-mafajat…the punishment for weakness is sudden, unexpected and untimely death. Long live Pakistan!

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2022.

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