IT is meant to be a day when Pakistanis celebrate Pakistan and the idea of one nation, but March 23 took on a surreal and disturbing meaning this year. Across the country, rallies were held by the religious and political right, and even militant organisations, all trying to reinvent the meaning of Pakistan and propagate an ideology rooted in a narrow and intolerant version of Islam. The show of force by the far right can be explained by several factors. One, with the TTP-government talks dominating the national conversation in recent weeks, other players in the militancy and right-wing spectrum perhaps felt the need to remind the country of their existence and relevance — and also to establish that the TTP alone will not set the agenda of the far right and militant club.

Two, the state has surrendered the narrative space to the far right by progressively withdrawing from the symbolic parades and events that traditionally used to be held on March 23. True, this year the presidency did try and revive in a small way the pomp and ceremony that used to be identified with March 23, but security concerns still hang heavy and no one in either the civilian or political leadership seems inclined to run the risk of holding a big public event anymore. Three, the state continues to show an extraordinary acceptance of certain stripes of militancy. Among the many groups holding public events in Pakistan on Sunday, some still continue to be perceived as being close to the army-led security establishment. And the PML-N, as per its habit of old, seems to have once again offered extraordinary concessions to some extremist organisations regarding their visibility and pervasiveness in Punjab and even nationally in a Faustian bargain that can at best be described as misguided and naive.

The problem is that neither the government of the day nor the permanent state/security establishment has ever seemed to understand that short-term concessions have long-term impacts. Allowing extremist groups to appropriate March 23, to become the loudest and most vocal of lobbies when it comes to articulating a vision and identity for Pakistan, to package hate and intolerance as piety and faith, all of that will help nudge this country further to the right and towards a future where fear and hate will dominate. What should March 23 stand for? For liberty, for self-determination, for democracy and the rights of all, for freedom from coercion and violence, for the economic and social progress of a citizenry of 200 million, for equality of all before the law and in the eyes of the state. Those are the values that the country should be celebrating on March 23. Instead, too many had to shut their ears to the dark message that dominated on Sunday.