THE Indian leadership has continued with its aggressive posturing against Pakistan in the US, where Indian premier, Manmohan Singh, declared that India would only normalise relations with Pakistan after the latter altered what he saw as a “mindset of using terror as an instrument of state policy against New Delhi.” Coming from an Indian leader, this comment is rather ironical, given how India has been using state terrorism against the Kashmiri people for over sixty years in Occupied Kashmir. Generation after generation of Kashmiris have lost their lives to Indian state terrorism through its military and paramilitary forces. Indian forces have used torture and rape as weapons of war against Kashmiri women and youth, who have been brutalised by the Indian occupiers.
- Assured failure: Why talk with India?
- Pakistan seeks peace with India as an equal partner, not as a reward for good behaviour
- India Pakistan meet fails as expected. Why talk?
- Islamabad Delhi Peace talks on basis of equality.
- Pakistan should stop showing enthusiasm for resumption of meaningless dialogue with Delhi
So if anyone has a mindset of using terror at the level of the state, it is the successive Indian leaders, who continue with their occupation of Kashmir, in defiance of UN resolutions and international law. As the Pakistani leadership has continued to reiterate, including President Zardari in his latest remarks on Kashmir in New York, unless there is a just resolution of the Kashmir dispute, there will be little stability in South Asia.
Nor is it just in Occupied Kashmir that the Indians have used state terrorism. They have sought to provide succour and sanctuary to terrorists active in Pakistan’s Balochistan province and FATA, through Afghanistan.
Using its “diplomats” as part of this plan reveals the complicity of the Indian state apparatus in spreading terrorism across borders.
As for the demand for action regarding the Mumbai blasts, the government of Pakistan has gone out of its way to accommodate the Indians but has found little cooperation from the Indian authorities who have been fudging the issue of giving substantive evidence. It seems India is more interested in making political mileage out of the Mumbai incident than in bringing about closure through hard evidence on which the Pakistani authorities can proceed to conclude the case. Even more questionable has been the Indian authorities’ refusal to move ahead and punish the guilty, who have been identified, in the case of the Samjhota Express blast in which primarily innocent Pakistani citizens were killed on Indian soil.
As for Manmohan’s latest outburst, it seems intended specifically to up the ante against renewal of dialogue. It is time Pakistan stopped showing it was in a hurry to resume what has so far been a fairly meaningless dialogue in terms of conflict resolution. After all things need to change and for that there has to first be a change in the Indian mindset of using terrorism as a normal tool of state policy. The Nation
Good relations with Pakistan begin with better treatment of Muslims in Bharat–beginning with the Kashmiris, but not just limited to them. The Gujaratis and the other downtrodden Muslims in Bharat must be treated as equal citizens, and things must move beyond tokenism (Azad, Fakharuddin & Kalam).
Delhi has to tone down its rhetoric on terror. Islamabad and the world knows who is behind the TTP in Swat. If Delhi wants peace with Pakistan, it has to pull back in Afghanistan and Swat. It has to make major territorial concessions in Kashmir and the border areas. Once the border disputes have been resolved, the sky is the limit in cooperation with Pakistan. Sir Creek and Siachin have to solved and resolved quickly. Once Kashmir is resolved in accordance with the UN resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people, the Pakistan government will find to problem in helping Bharat gain trans-national travel through Pakistan. However this has to be on a mutual basis which would allow Pakistani truck to reach Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Bharat must live up to the letter and the spirit of the Indus Water treaty and begin treating Pakistanis are friends rather than enemies.
If Bharat wants peace with Pakistan, it has to dismantle the infrastructure of the RSS and the BJP and gag the Islamphobes that it nurtures within its borders. If Bharat wants peace it has to stop sabotaging Pakistan at all international forums, and begin supporting common and Pakistani causes. Jointly fighting for the Basmati patent, and IRRI copyright would help the atmosphere of friendship.
The last time Mr. Singh met with with President Zardari, the meeting did not go well. Mr. Singh was rude and undiplomatic. Like a juvenile toddler in his terrible two’s Mr. Singh was seen as a spoilt toddler jumping up and down complaining after he has lost his favorite teddy. The temper tantrum impressed no one. Perhaps Mr. Singh has gone senile and forgot where he was. The septuagenarian Premier was behaving as if he was showing up at a schoolyard brawl after being told by the headmistress to repeat a certain line. It was seen for what it was worth, “Complaint diplomacy” at its worst.
Finally, the Pakistani military faces growing international pressure to step up operations in the other tribal agencies of the FATA in the aftermath of its offensive in South Waziristan in October. The authorities remain reluctant to do so, given an unwillingness to target “pro-Pakistani” militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani group, Hezb-i-Islami (Gulbuddin Hekmatyar) and Gul Bahadur and Mullah Nazir factions of the TTP. This contrasts with its relative willingness to target “anti-Pakistani” militant groups such as the Hakimullah Mehsud faction of the TTP based in South Waziristan.
Adding to this are concerns that the surge in the US military presence in Afghanistan could result in an increase in cross-border military operations into Pakistan, notably in southern Balochistan province, which is believed to be the sanctuary of the Afghan Taliban leadership. Renewed hostilities with India would offer a means to delay or deter any expansion of military operations against militant sanctuaries in Pakistan.
The fact that the Pakistani military continues to maintain the majority of its resources on its eastern border with India rather than against militant sanctuaries along the western border with Afghanistan is evidence of its continued preoccupation with India rather than the threat of Islamic extremism. Asia Times
Peace is always in the mutual interest of parties tied up in conflict. One party does not do the other party any favors. It is the height of arrogance to convey the impression that peace talks are a reward for good behavior of one party. By portraying Pakistan as the guilty party, Delhi sabotages any prospect for peace. If the Americans and the Russians can smoke the peace pipe, so can the Indians and the Pakistanis–however it has to be done on the basis of dignity and mutual respect, not diktat and dictation.
There are many types of peace. It is obvious that India has neither the capacity nor the wherewithal to impose peace of the sort that exists between the Native Americans and the US government. India is not Israel and Pakistan is not the Gaza strip. If Israel with all its might could not force an unequal peace on unequal partners (Syria, Palestinians and Lebanon) it is also very obvious that Delhi cannot impose peace on Pakistan the same way. Bharat could not break up Lanka and make it Kowtow to Bharat. It cannot force Pakistan. It has to woo Pakistanis if she wants peace on her Western borders.
Why should Pakistan waste time on talks with Bharat, and why should Pakistan ask for talks.
It is not Delhi’s god given right to rule Kabul. Nor does Bharat extend from Kabul to the Raj Kalhani in the East. That “Akhand Bharat” the dream of the Hindu Mahasabah will never materialize. Bharati religions preach the eternal history of Bharat beyond its borders. If Bharat is a secular country then this transnational dreams of a greater Bharat must be brought back to reality. Every time Adhvani and Modi open their mouths, peace is sent back a decade.
