A republic if you can keep it

On October 30, India launched its ten-day-long tri-service exercise called 'Trishul'. Trishul means the tri-pointed spear of the Hindu deity Lord Shiva. These manoeuvres are taking place on the Pakistani border. Incidentally, this was also the day when the Afghan Taliban, oh our beloved brothers, chose to launch their aerial exercises on (you guessed it) the Pakistani border.

Coincidences can happen. And we will get back to them in a bit. However, to any student of military tactics, this must appear remarkably similar to what is known as a hammer-and-anvil strategy. Where one party pins you down and the other goes crazy. Granted, both have so far not resorted to open violence again; however, it is still a pressure tactic, an open threat of the so-called two-front war. But sure, coincidences are possible, and the Afghan Taliban are our brothers.

Let us return to the coincidences. It so happens that it was also the day when the reports of Russia testing its nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable torpedo called 'Poseidon' surfaced. To call it a torpedo is a gross injustice to it. Estimated to be 20 metres (65 feet) long and 2 metres (6.5 feet) in diameter, it is a nuclear-propelled and nuclear-armed autonomous underwater vehicle capable of generating a tsunami.

You may ask, what is the coincidence? What is the Greek sea god Poseidon best recognised by? Trident, three-pointed spear, or as some South Asians would look at it, his Trishul. Could the Russian Poseidon be busy in its waters while sending its Trishul to our border? Or could the Indian Trishul be possessing the Russian Poseidon to wreak havoc elsewhere? But this could also be a pure coincidence.

Incidentally, at least by the Pakistani and Indian standard time, it was October 30 when America's President Trump and China's President Xi met in Busan, South Korea, and decided to resolve all pending significant disagreements. The news of the Poseidon test compelled President Trump to announce the resumption of nuclear testing.

How did the announcement go down in New Delhi, which at times tries to woo China in response to President Trump and at other times attempts the opposite? You can measure India's desperation by two facts. Its rabid media covered every second of the event. And the significant defence concessions and procurements that New Delhi had been trying to defer until the end of the Bihar election were rushed forward.

Hence, the "10-year US India Defence Framework", focusing on "coordination, info sharing, and tech cooperation" and some expensive procurements, was signed between the US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. During the Xi-Trump meeting, both sides agreed to work closely to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

To their credit, President Trump and his administration were the first to see the connection between India and the Ukraine war. When the administration imposed 25 per cent punitive tariffs on India for purchasing oil from Russia, many senior officials referred to the Ukraine war as Modi's war.

And just as proof of the concept, after delaying a meeting several times, President Putin showed up in Alaska to meet President Trump. The question is, why would India want to bankroll a war there? As long as the world is erupting into chaos and Modi's allied billionaires make huge profits, such a mess keeps attention away from the theatre of the absurd in India. But the Ukraine war is not the only one which the US found hard to resolve.

Both President Biden and President Trump had a hard time controlling another war: Israel's war on its neighbours. Could that be Modi's war too? Israel and India, both bad actors under the incumbent government, are joined at the hip by hate. In the recent wars, we have heard the media of only three countries using dehumanising language against their rivals: Israel, India and Russia. Both Moscow and Tel Aviv are militarily very powerful, but do not have enough money. Who does? India. And guess who runs the Haifa port? Why, India's Adani!

Enough about coincidences. Let us come back to the exercise named Trishul and "our brothers" on the Western border. I grant you that the Taliban's acting foreign minister Amir Muttaqi's India yatra, the surge of terror in Pakistan originating from Afghan soil, which brought the two neighbours to blows, and the recent exercises in Kandahar could all be coincidental, but one development is certainly not.

The Afghan Taliban's decision to build a dam on the Kunar River, right when India claimed to have suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, vowed to deprive Pakistan of every single drop of water, and then flooded Punjab after it did not get away with Operation Sindoor. This is no coincidence. The Taliban and Indian social media handles put out messages which are clearly in sync and could easily be originating in New Delhi. Sadly, all this because Modi has to win yet another election.

If only someone had warned us before the Taliban took over in Kabul of this possibility. Wait. Somebody did! I did. On August 7, 2021, just a week before the fall of Kabul, I wrote, in this very space, "Despite what you are told, the Taliban have not changed their spots. And their victory narrative will export this destabilising ideology to Pakistan through the TTP and other aligned groups."

I also quoted India's Ajit Doval about potential cooperation with the Taliban to get back at Pakistan. I immediately came under immense pressure, which would continue till I ended up with a myocardial infarction. Since Modi came to power in India, every time I speak my conscience, I am punished. And it is not even a far-fetched thought. If the Indian lobby is so powerful that it can try to block President Trump's tariff agenda in the US Senate, in the US courts and in the media, it must have offshoots in Pakistan too.

Seeing through this prism, all major debacles until three years ago in Pakistan, the political boil and gridlock, the Afghan policy, the disastrous India policy, the rising tide of extremism, and the economic meltdown, look not as symptoms of various lobbies working at cross purposes but a single policy designed to make India look good.

I did not create Pakistan. I am just a loyal citizen. I am tired of being persecuted for my love for my homeland and being put on mute every time it is inconvenient for India. Or even for Kabul. Do as you like.

Your brothers on the Western border now remind you of Afghanistan being the graveyard of empires. But Pakistan is not an empire. It is a republic. As Benjamin Franklin once remarked, if you can keep it. Not easy when so many self-proclaimed democracies like India and Israel want to become theocratic kingdoms. But can you keep it?