Author: M.V. Kamath
Publication: Organiser
Date: February 15, 2009
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=277&page=10
Newly elected US President Barack Obama has
now done better than British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. The latter
equates Pakistan-sponsored terrorism with what he believes "solving the
Kashmir problem". There is no "Kashmir problem". That is in
the minds only of the anti-India bureaucrats who have long haunted the US
States Department and the British Foreign Office. They were the ones, right
from the start of 1948 who created the Kashmir 'problem'. It served them two
purposes: One, to have a reliable ally in South Asia; another, to gain Pakistan's
support to contain-and finally destroy-the communist state of the Soviet Union.
To achieve that end, both countries, in collision, were willing to hurt India
to the extent possible. And that they did consistently and without batting
an eyelid. Literally billions of dollars were showered on Pakistani Armed
Forces without giving a single thought that the military supplies would invariably
be used against India and India alone.
When President Eisenhower put forth the lame
excuse that US guns were not meant to be aimed at India, it was V K Krishna
Menon who acidly retorted that the United States had yet to manufacture a
gun that could shoot only in one direction. Both the US and the UK in the
past have been guilty of supporting dictatorial regimes in Pakistan whose
sole aim was to destroy India with a thousand cuts. Now for Miliband to say
that he has "no evidence of the Pakistani state directing terrorist activities"
means that he is either deliberately blind to realities or very poorly informed.
According to an article published in the latest
issue of Power Politics, the ISI has circulated two maps among the Pakistani
Armed Forces, one of which targets North India as the region which is expected
to be converted into "Islamic Republic of Pakistan". Hasn't Miliband
heard of the ISI? A large part of every dollar or pound donated to Pakistan
as economic aid goes to sustain the Pakistani Army's terrorist organisations.
If Obama and Miliband are not aware of that, they are doing their own country
great disservice. For the former to say US military aid will only be given
if Pakistan fulfils its obligation to contain terrorism is neither here nor
there. Pakistan will turn to China.
Already it has said that it doesn't need Obama's
advice. What comes as a shock is to learn that US Senate Foreign Relations
Committee Chairman, democrat John Kerry wants his country to triple the current
aid it gives to Pakistan. Pakistan deserves no aid. A high proportion of any
aid, economic or otherwise, goes into Army-and later into terrorist-pockets.
Pakistan's claim to Jammu & Kashmir rests on the theory that it has a
Muslim majority. The facts show otherwise. Jammu has a large non-Muslim majority,
as has Ladakh. That apart, after the Shimla Pact, Islamabad was duty bound
to honour existing boundaries. It has consistently broken the Pact over the
last decade. That calls for severe condemnation.
But more importantly, the very concept of
the infamous Two-Nation Theory was thrown overboard the day Bangladesh was
formed. After that, Pakistan has no business to raise the so-called 'Kashmir
issue'. That issue has long been dead and buried. And now, after the December
elections, the Kashmiri people have said in clear terms that they are more
interested in getting access to water, electricity and housing, than in separatism.
If Miliband doesn't know that, he needs to be educated. Linking terrorism
with the so-called 'Kashmir Issue' is an excuse for the Pakistan Armed Forces
to milk both the US and Britain, who have their own agenda. One can understand
United States naivette.
But Britain should know from decades of colonial
experience that Afghanistan is uncontrollable, as is the North West Frontier
Province. Pakistan is a rump state. Its writ hardly runs in the Frontier and
Tribal areas. Baluchistan is in no way better placed. And Sind would be happy
to get out of Punjabi clutches. If Pakistan continues to exist, it is because
the United States has a stake in it. The day the United States stops pampering
Pakistan will be the day Pakistan collapses like a house of cards, unless
China comes to its rescue.
If the United States and Britain want Pakistan
to stand on its feet it is not out of any love for the Pakistani people but
for strictly geopolitical reasons. If China is interested in keeping Pakistan
alive, it is because of India. Keeping Pakistan at loggerheads with India
serves Beijing's purpose. If India and Pakistan come to terms, the losers
will be China as much as the western powers led by the United States-and they
know if full well. President Obama may sound demanding but, given Washington's
compulsions, he will have to keep Pakistan on his side. Whatever Obama may
have in mind, his first priority will always be US interests and Islamabad
knows how to cash in on it. If Washington walks out, Pakistan knows that it
can always turn to its other patron, China, and China, one may be sure, will
be only too willing to assume its new role in the sub-continent. The wise
thing for the United States to do is to let Afghanistan stew in its own juice.
Why blame the Taliban or al Qaeda when both are America's own creations. As
you sow, so you reap and presently the United States is reaping the poisonous
crops whose seeds it had willingly planted.
Democracy cannot be imposed on Afghanistan,
Baluchistan or North West Frontier Province, which have their own tribal culture
which needs to be respected. They must be left to their fate? But where will
that leave Pakistan whose pretensions to statehood to have been exposed time
and again? All these fruitless years it has been run either by the Armed Forces
with their medieval outlook or by feudal overlords like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
who held 12,000 acres of land in Larkana and ruled like a king. Legend had
it that one could roam the countryside on horseback for an entire day and
never leave Bhutto-owned property. If Pakistan has any wisdom, it will join
India to form a sub-continental confederation, even while keeping its sovereignty
intact.
Let it be remembered that at the Muslim League
session held in Lahore in December 1924, it was resolved inter alia that "the
existing provinces of India shall be united under a common government on a
federal basis so that each province shall have full and complete provincial
autonomy, the functions of the central government being confined to such matter
only as are of general and common concern". Even as late as December
1932, the memorandum submitted by Muslim delegates at the Round Table Conference
demanded a federal constitution and provincial autonomy and linked statutory
majorities with a guarantee that "the Muslims should form governments
in those areas of North West and North East India where they had such majorities".
What was said in 1932 holds good to this day. Help promote confederation,
Shri Miliband. That will be a win-win situation for all. Even for Obama's
United States. Pakistan can then live an independent but tension-free life
aimed at prosperity for all forgetting its hate-filled subservient past and
looking forward to a self-filling future of great and wondrous prospects.
The ISI has circulated two maps among the
Pakistani Armed Forces, one of which targets North India as the region which
is expected to be converted into "Islamic Republic of Pakistan".
Hasn't Miliband heard of the ISI? A large part of every dollar or pound donated
to Pakistan as economic aid goes to sustain the Pakistani Army's terrorist
organisations. If Obama and Miliband are not aware of that, they are doing
their own country great disservice.