| December 25, 2001 | Tuesday | Shawwal 9, 1422 |
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What is BJP govt up to?
TODAY, as we celebrate the birth anniversary of the remarkable man who bequeathed us our nation, history has placed Pakistan at a crossroads once again. Recent events have forced on the country some difficult choices, which must, once again, provoke fundamental questions about Pakistan’s future direction and destiny. One way forward is to learn from the Quaid-i-Azam’s legacy and the blueprint of his vision for Pakistan. The present reality of the nation that Jinnah carved out for the Muslims of the subcontinent bears little resemblance to the vision that inspired his titanic struggle. Today, if we survey the political and social landscape, it is patently clear that we have let our great leader down.
On our western frontier, the sound and fury of months of heavy bombardment has barely died down. On the perenially troubled eastern border, war clouds are once again gathering. Internally, Pakistan remains a volatile country, with violence never far from whatever collective activity we undertake — especially religious and political. Almost five and a half decades after we became an independent state, the country has split into two and remains mired in poverty, illiteracy and backwardness. Religious and political extremism is on the rise. Regional and ethnic tensions continue to simmer under the surface, a legacy of decades of highly centralized, autocratic or semi-democratic rule. A military government is at the helm once again, as it has been for a depressingly large period of the country’s history. Yet, amidst all this gloom, one must not forget that Pakistan is home to a large majority of decent, honest and hard-working people who have had the misfortune of being led to this unhappy state by a succession of corrupt, incompetent and venal rulers. Over the years, politicians and the civil and military bureaucracy have vied with one another to give the hapless people of Pakistan nothing but bad governance and arbitrary rule.
The Quaid, for his part, had created this country through a determined and impeccably constitutional struggle. He expected it to be a model democratic state governed by the Islamic principles of tolerance and rule of law. But that was not to be. Today, as we reflect on what went wrong we must not allow pessimism and cynicism to overpower us and ask ourselves an important question: how can we reclaim this land for its people, as the Quaid intended, and make it a place where their lives can be lived with dignity and their dreams realized? How can we put this country back on track and bring it closer to Jinnah’s ideals? There is a great deal we can learn from how Jinnah conducted himself during his struggle for Pakistan and the blueprint he left behind for the state he created. The Quaid was a constitutionalist to the core. He would be truly appalled if he were alive to see the way in which Pakistan’s rulers have mangled a succession of constitutions to suit their self-seeking interests.
Jinnah held extremism of all kinds in contempt and was extremely averse to the idea that Pakistan would be a theocracy. The endless sectarian killings and attacks on mosques and imambargahs, as well as the ability of a small but vocal extremist lobby to hold the country to ransom, would be abhorrent to him. He believed in tolerance and would never stoop to using unparliamentary language, let alone vendetta, against his opponents. The petty-minded conduct of most of his successors, both civil and military, would have shocked the Quaid. His birth anniversary, in the backdrop of the tumultuous events in Afghanistan and their impact on domestic politics, gives the rulers and the ruled an ideal opportunity for introspection and reflection. The choice is stark: will we follow the way of the Quaid and build Pakistan on a broad and liberal interpretation of the Islamic notions of justice, fairplay and cultural freedom? Or will we allow the Quaid’s vision to be distorted by a small, unrepresentative and obscurantist coterie that fears the essence of the Quaid’s message of respect for the rule of law, religious tolerance and democracy?
ONE hopes we are not face to face with another Indo-Pakistan war, though going by what the Hindu extremists now in power in New Delhi are doing, one should keep one’s fingers crossed. Step by step, the BJP leadership has taken actions that look menacing and have contributed to a gradual escalation of tension to a dangerous point. Both diplomatically and militarily, it has acted impetuously and with a rashness that is not expected of a country India’s size. First, even before preliminary investigations had begun into the mysterious Dec 13 attack on the Indian parliament building, New Delhi started seeing Pakistan’s hand in it. However, it has remained confused till this day: sometimes it accuses the ISI of masterminding the plot; sometimes it holds two Pakistan-based organizations responsible for the terrorist attack. To Pakistan’s offer to take action against the two groups if evidence were provided India’s response was negative, because it had no evidence whatsoever. It also rejected Pakistan’s offer of a joint inquiry. The world got to know of the baselessness of India’s allegation when the BJP government refused America’s offer to associate the FBI with the investigation.
While these were diplomatic moves, India then went ahead and started troop movements on a massive scale — again blaming Pakistan for its war-like moves. It gave no reason why Pakistan would like to a have a military confrontation with India while its hands were full on the Afghan border. The Indian troop build-up, according to international observers, is the biggest since the 1987 Exercise Brasstacks. Under the circumstances, Pakistan could not but take precautionary measures to counter the threat to its security.
While this troop build-up continues, India has taken two more rash decisions, one of them actually demeaning for any civilized country. While it recalled its high commissioner in Islamabad last week, on Sunday it humiliated a Pakistani diplomat, who was tortured, stripped and forced by Indian intelligence men to sign a confession of espionage. The medical report confirmed his torture. One does not understand of what benefit a diplomat’s torture is to India. As for Pakistan’s demand that the incident be thoroughly investigated, one can rest assured — given the current state of Indian bellicosity — that the request would remain unheeded.
All these precipitate actions and diplomatic and military brinkmanship have only tended to aggravate the tension in the subcontinent. The real issue — responsibility for the Dec 13 outrage — has been pushed to the background. That exactly, perhaps, was the BJP government’s idea. Frustrated by Pakistan’s pivotal role in the US-led coalition, India feels humiliated for being asked to stand on the sidelines in the Afghan issue. Its offer of logistic support to the US was ignored, and it was Pakistan that became a front-line state. Since then, New Delhi has been looking for one excuse or the other to hot things up on Pakistan’s eastern border while a war raged in its west.
Pakistan has done well by maintaining a dignified and self-confident posture. It has refused to stoop to India’s level, and that is where the hawks in the Vajpayee government feel more frustrated. One hopes all this hoopla is not merely a cover for ensuring a quick passage of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance through parliament.