Modi’s tough posturing
Pakistan was already wary of Prime Minister Modi because of his alleged involvement in the massacre in Gujarat in 2002 when he was the state chief minister. He also talked tough against Pakistan during the general elections in India earlier this year. Ignoring all this and also risking criticism from Pakistan’s anti-India lobby, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif extended a hand of friendship, first by attending Prime Minister Modi’s inauguration and secondly by not meeting, while in New Delhi, the Hurriyat leadership only to be snubbed by his Indian counterpart, which he did by cancelling the scheduled foreign secretary-level talks just because Pakistan’s high commissioner in New Delhi had hosted a reception for the Hurriyat leadership.
It had been an age-old tradition that whenever in the Indian capital, the Pakistani leadership would meet the Hurriyat leaders and they would also be consulted before entering into formal bilateral dialogue with India, no matter at what level, gestures considered by India as interference in its internal affairs. Not meeting the Hurriyat leaders when in New Delhi was a significant concession extended by Prime Minister Sharif to Prime Minister Modi to put the latter at ease in dealing with Pakistan. But the Indian leader’s response was too belligerent, to say the least.
The Modi government is also seemingly making a bid to do away with Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which is a provision that makes it impossible for New Delhi to integrate the occupied territory into Indian dominion as long as the members of the Kashmir legislative assembly do not approve the move with a majority vote. Making matters even more intractable, India has begun unprovoked firing almost round-the-clock across the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary while insisting that it was Pakistan that had initiated the clashes. So much so that during his recent US visit, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif publicly accused India of intentionally hindering Pakistan’s efforts to clear its border areas with Afghanistan of all kinds of militants by keeping the Pakistan Army engaged at the LoC.
Indeed, the timing of the relentless violations of ceasefire at the LoC is too transparent to fool anyone. It had begun soon after an emboldened Indian prime minister returned from Washington after signing in late September a joint statement with US President Barack Obama, which among other things, affirmed the need “for joint and concerted efforts, including the dismantling of safe havens for terrorist and criminal networks, to disrupt all financial and tactical support for networks such as al Qaeda, Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Company, and the Haqqanis”. The two also reiterated their call for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai to justice. The joint statement also assured India of its phased entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group.
It seems those on whom we had been banking all these six decades to intervene on our behalf whenever the bully on the block would try to force our back to the wall have joined the other side. Therefore, perhaps the unusually aggressive posturing by Prime Minister Modi. Let us not go by the handshake at Kathmandu alone, however welcome that gesture may be in the current climate. Let us also not forget that we cannot change our neighbours. We are stuck with them for all times to come. So let us live with the problem with full equanimity while pursuing a peaceful settlement of all our bilateral problems with India, Modi or no Modi.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2014.
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Sajad Lone, former pro-Pakistan Kashmiri separatist with Pakistani wife, now is pro-Indian and had a friendly meeting with PM Narendra Modi.
The voter turnout in Indian Occupied Kashmir is 72% showing that Indian democracy is being accepted in Jammu & Kashmir! Even the BJP has a chance of winning, or at least get a decent number of seats.
India has constructed rail link from Jammu through Srinagar, all the way to Baramulla. The airport in Srinagar has been upgraded and is now an international airport. Now India is planning an expressway, large road network with bridges in Indian Occupied Kashmir as well as many other infrastructure projects. Even private companies are starting to invest in infrastructure, tourism and industrial projects for economic development.
Pakistan can forget Kashmir issue now. If the issue stays alive then in 10 years time, Azad Kashmir will want to join India.
India's approach towards Pakistan is absolutely perfect.
"It had been an age-old tradition that whenever in the Indian capital, the Pakistani leadership would meet the Hurriyat leaders and they would also be consulted before entering into formal bilateral dialogue with India, no matter at what level, gestures considered by India as interference in its internal affairs."
Age old tradition? How old? 20 years? The world believed that earth was the centre of universe and sun went around it till Copernicus turned it upside down and showed us the truth. Modi has done the same. Its time Pakistanis look at the reality and stop interfering in other country's affairs in name of tradition or does Pakistan considers interfering in other country's affairs "a tradition"?
Pakistan was already wary of Prime Minister Modi because of his alleged involvement in the massacre in Gujarat in 2002 when he was the state chief minister.
And India is already wary of,
A. Pakistani Army for its involvement in massacre of Bangladeshis in 1971.
B. Pakistani Agencies for their involvement in Mumbai 2008.
C. Pakistani Cricketers for involvement in Ball Biting and Match Fixing..
D. Pakistani Constitution for harbouring anti minority clauses.
The list can go on and on.
It seems those on whom we had been banking all these six decades to intervene on our behalf whenever the bully on the block would try to force our back to the wall have joined the other side.
Sounds more like a handout from the HQ of the Invisible Soldiers Incorporated than a balanced Editorial.
However, for a moment let us concede this and reflect - Why has everyone, OIC included, joined the other side?
Ask this question and keep asking this till the answer is found.
What Pakistan claims, USA must support and India must giive. Everyone must acquiesce and submit to the Pakistani view point because that is the one and only truth.
If this were the considered view of the Pakistan government, I as an Indian would say goodbye to even common mutual tolerance between Pakistan and India, let alone good or friendly relations between them. The editorial has been written with an excessively paranoid view of Pakistan’s power in all respects – military, economic, and diplomatic. The army chief has been extolled for his work and words in USA. I am reminded of J. M. Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton (1902) which I read way back in 1955. In that play the head of an English aristocratic family used to hold an entertainment and dinner for his servants and attendants at which the family members served them, with appropriate condescension. At one point a page-boy enjoys something. The author says of him: “The page-boy cheers and has a moment of importance in his life.” The army chief has only enjoyed a few moments of importance in his life, or in Pakistan’s life, if you will, by his meetings and talks with important personages in Washington. Now ET assures us that this has become a high water mark of US–Pakistan relations. This pleases analysts and observers in Pakistan and they end up saying that USA had gone over to the other side and that Pakistan should pursue “a peaceful settlement of all our bilateral problems with India, Modi or no Modi”. This single line, if it came from Pakistan government, would be enough to douse all hope of improvement for a long time to come, not only in Modi’s time but also in the tenures of several later prime ministers. This is not much worse than what I have been saying for a long time, namely, that in Pakistan there is no constituency for good relations with India. I see no silver lining anywhere. V. C. Bhutani, Delhi, 1 Dec 2014, 1935 IST
Two questions: 1. Which country in the world supports Pakistan's view on Kashmir? 2. Which country in the world thinks that Pakistan is not an embarrassment.
Answers: 1. None 2. None
Sir,
India and Pakistan can't be friends in this generation. There is way too much bad blood between them. At best we can hope for civility. Even this is not possible as long as one of the nation's foreign policy is perpetually ruled by a martial institution (Army), which is only trained to use a sledgehammer for every problem. So, we have the situation of 'strategic depth' and other such nonsense, that govern our relations.
Best we can hope for is - next generation does better (if at all they grow up in a civil environment). But, if textbooks preach hatred, and a armed militancy continues, even that is unlikely.
Article 370 is India's internal matter. Other way is Pakistan should implement accepted UN resolution. I agree that congress never took initiative to resolve lots of partition issue as it always felt that having a good relation with Pakistan will lead to bad relations with Indian Muslims. This is the first time in India that a non-congress government has come to power and, region and world will take some time to adjust. BJP till now has not fought a single war with Pakistan. It is not the country who has foreign policy, it is always the leaders at the help of affairs who do so. Gujarat riots is India internal issue, Pakistan was created for the welfare of the subcontinent muslims. India has loosed it visa and citizenship for Pakistani non-muslims, if Pakistan is so much concern than it should also do the same, remember Jinnah also preferred that. India still have Muslims Pakistan do not have Hindus in the same percentage.
"Pakistan was already wary of Prime Minister Modi because of his alleged involvement in the massacre in Gujarat in 2002 when he was the state chief minister"
Seriously ET??? How and why is Pakistan wary for his involvement in the Gujarat massacre.. Isn't that any internal matter to India... So should we also be wary of PM Nawaz Sharif for his alleged involvement in some corruption scandals in Punjab???
This kind of muddled thinking amongst the literates & educated class, is the reason of chaos your country is in..
I expected better..
I never expected such an editorial from ET. To conclude that US is not helping Pakistan in its issues with India and India is bullying Pakistan is incorrect. I think it may be due to poor access to information in Pakistan for the public in general and journalists in particular. Some areas, nearly 1/3rd of the country, were out of bound for the journalists since independence. In India media reaches nook and corner of the country. Information is very restricted to the public.
Finally Express Tribune remembered that its a Pakistani news papers not and Indian one..India is showing its teeth and first rule in a fight against bully is never back down..If rape capital of world India thinks, like its poor women, the Pakistani nation will given in to the savagery then they are surly mistaken..
This was an editorial in ET?
Having taken recourse to means of violence falsely believing that is best strategy in settlement of disputes, Pakistan is now left to fend for itself. India and its government knows which force in Pakistan has terrorized not just Pakistani citizens but all of South Asia. Since the Pakistani government is subservient to the force terrorizing the neighborhood, talking with it is meaningless, if not a waste of time. As and when the status quo changes and the goals of India and Pakistan get aligned, problems will get settled. Give up violence if you are interested in Peace, or else suffer the consequences. Can there be a clearer message ? Blaming the world or X Y and Z, can change nothing.
The whole world knows that Pakistan is the aggressor and force behind LoC violations. India is only responding to ISI led terrorism. USA and the rest of the world sides with India, not Pakistan. Come to sense and tell some truth. It will do you good.
Do citizens of Pakistan belonging to various sects. of Islam have peaceful relationship among themselves? The answer is NO. And you keep blaming neighbour for not so good relations.
Speaking of conspiracy theories, what if Pak army is conducting ceasefire violations as a cover-up for its incompetency/unwillingness to deal with the terrorists, so it gets to blame India for its failure? Isn't that also a contender?
My problem is not with theories, but with cocky assertions about who's doing the shelling. I honestly don't know, but I'd be wary of pulling out theories out of my behind.
All these blabbering blaming India for everything is not going to help Pakistan. You guys have to come out of the denial mode and do what is good for your country. If a media like ET can editorial like this I pity the people of Pakistan. Your army has been repeatedly caught red handed doing mischief both in Afghanistan and India. Past congress governments were soft and looked other way for a variety of reasons. Times have changed that warrant a change in Pakistan army's behaviour.
++++++++++++++ It seems those on whom we had been banking all these six decades to intervene on our behalf whenever the bully on the block would try to force our back to the wall have joined the other side. +++++++++++++
Dear Editors, you could at least have bothered to ask yourselves that if the above being true... then WHY is that so...? And not just them, but practically each and every entity on this planet does not wish to "intervene on our (i.e. Pakistan's) behalf". Seriously, just how much longer will Pakistan and its educated people like yourselves continue to live in Denial Mode...? A complete mystery....
India has stated that Pakistan needs to chose either the Kashmiri separatists or Indian Govt for Talks. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Whats not clear about that?
What an editorial. Even zaid hameed couldn't have written better.