archive: Sonia Congress batting for Pakistan
Sonia Congress batting for Pakistan
V.P. Bhatia
Organiser
July 4, 1999
Title: Sonia Congress batting for Pakistan
Author: V.P. Bhatia
Publication: Organiser
Date: July 4, 1999
Introduction: Cong-I nitwits echo Sartaj Aziz's version of the G-8
communique on Kargil crisis.
THERE IS an interesting story about 'Sheikh Chilli', a legendary
village idiot in folk tales of North India. It is said, one day he
came running in a fit of great joy to tell his mother a great
tiding-that the Maulvi Saheb had absolved the Muslims of the village
from the duty of offering 'namaz', by declaring openly in the mosque
itself, 'Don't say any namaz'. Considering it as one of her son's
idiotic pranks, she went to check it with the Maulvi Saheb herself.
Taken aback for a moment, the Maulvi then remembered what he had
actually said, which was this : "Unless you have washed your hands and
feet (a pre-namaz ritual called wazoo), don't offer namaz. However,
the Sheikh Chilli, had conveniently cut off the first part of the
sentence and taken the rest of it as a fatwa.
I was reminded of this story on hearing (on the TV) the Sonia
Congress' spokesman Ajit Jogi's hair-brained interpretation of the G-8
communique on the Kargil crisis, which almost every newspaper
including the Dawn of Karachi has described as vindication of India's
stand and Vajpayee Government's unique diplomatic victory. However,
for the likes of Jogi, mouthing the Italian lady's discomfiture, it is
'failure' of the Government's diplomacy because Pakistan had not been
named explicitly as aggressor in it. In doing so, they unashamedly
ignored the G-8 statement's early part which clearly mentions the
original cause of the crisis as "the infiltration of armed intruders
which violated the line of control" describes "the military action to
change the status quo as irresponsible" and calls for "restoration of
the line of control", and its "full respect in the future". However,
Shri Ajit Jogi, like the nit-wit Sheikh Chilli in the story, stupidly,
rather mischievously, picked only the later part, calling for
"immediate cessation of hostilities and resumption of dialogue" in
line with the stand of Paki Foreign Minister, Sartaj Aziz.
Thus cussedly batting for Pakistan, Jogi unabashedly peddled the
Pakistan Radio's version of the G-8 statement, forgetting even what
the USA, Soviet Russia, France and even Japan had said earlier
bluntly-that the original sin of Paki aggression had been verified as
a fact by these countries by their own sources and that the intruders
had to go back or be thrown out as a prelude to talks. Still later, a
spokesman of Germany, the 'host of the G-8 Summit as well as British
High Commissioner in India, Sir Rob Young made the situation more
explicit by clearly naming Pakistan as the aggressor, adding that its
Government had been warned privately in more harsh words to call off
the misadventure.
Surprisingly, however, even Shri Inder Gujral called the G-8 statement
as 'ambiguous', obviously out of partisan pique, though former Foreign
Secretary Muchkund Dubey aligned to Janata Dal, called it
'satisfactory' on Doordarshan, However, Dubey rightly added that one
should not harbour undue illusions about what the G-8 countries would
actually do to chastise Pakistan. In any case, everybody in the ruling
circles recognises that ultimately it is India herself which has to
discipline Pakistan and de-fang it to crush its mischief potential for
ever. For, the nation has paid horrendous price in terms of Jawan's
precious blood, disruption of normal human life and material loss for
being the neighbour of a bandit state which has been beefed and
buttressed by the West and China too at every step as a countervailing
force to prevent India from attaining its rightful stature as a
super-power in the comity of nations. As Pakistan had performed that
inimical role faithfully, things were bound to come to head one day or
the other as successive Tashkent, Shimla and Lahore agreements too
have not worked. Bandit State
The latest Lahore Declaration has however served one great purpose-it
sanctified once more the bilateralism of Shimla agreement ruling out
mediation which Pakistan and its friends were saying had become
outdated after the (Pak-sponsored) secessionism in Kashmir. More so,
it registered once more India's innate goodwill to that country if it
stuck to peaceful methods. No wonder, Lahore agreement has impressed
the G-8 about the BJP government's sincerity in the face of Paki
villainy and commended it in their summit as the basis of future talks
when Paki aggression is vacated.
The G-8 are of course advising 'restraint' to save Pakistan from total
collapse this time, which is overdue. It is an arduous task for our
forces because of the difficulty of terrain and Pakistan's sneaking
initiative to present India with a fait accompli. But the armed forces
have vowed to accomplish it with confidence even by crossing the LOC,
if the situation warrants. No wonder,the G-8 are worried, for
Pakistan's future.
There is ample evidence of behind-the-scene arm-twisting of bankrupt
Pakistan and its Sharif Government for the purpose. However, as the
Indian efforts to punish Pakistan go on, the opposition, particularly
the Sonia Congress is engaged in sinister activities and inimical
propaganda to run down the Government at a time of life and death
struggle for the forces. Forgetting the Congress's decades long
anti-national role in weakening defence and complicating Kashmir
problem, they are angling and praying for BJP's failure to tackle this
climax of the long simmering security crisis. But they are
fear-stricken also-that the Vajpayee Government may successfully crush
the perennial mischief potential of Pakistan despite its nuclear bluff
when the whole world is supporting India's case on sanctity of the
LoC-a thing that has never happened before.
Incidentally recognition of Ceasefire Line, later converted into LOC
as international border, is the solution that Pt. Nehru had been
striving for right since 1948, for which later Indira Gandhi secured
an oral undertaking from Z.A. Bhutto at Shimla, which the latter never
fulfilled. It could never be enforced because of Pakistan's predatory
nature inherited from its founder M.A. Jinnah who would grab one
concession after another from the Congress and then, like Oliver
Twist, ask for more.
50-Years' anti-India tilt corrected
As a former Cabinet Secretary, B.G. Deshmukh said in an article in the
Times of India a couple of years ago, it was always understood in the
corridors of power that this would be the ultimate solution. Banking
on it, the complacent Congress Governments had neglected to counter
even the continuous Pakistan propaganda and failed to educate the
world opinion even during the decade of Pak-sponsored proxy war.
It is interesting to note in this context another significant hint of
shift in US stand on the sanctity of the LOC. Selig Harrison, a former
correspondent of the Washington Post in South Asia, now a prominent
think-tank of the USA had been peddling the solution of making the
Muslim majority districts of Kashmir and Jammu independent under UN
auspices. However, now he says in his latest article, "Looking beyond
the immediate crisis, Pakistan and India should take steps to set the
stage for an enduring settlement. Both should agree to convert the UN
demarcated ceasefire line into a permanent boundary." Moreover, in an
article carried by 'The Asian Age (June 19), he has also urged the USA
not to feed Pakistan's war machine and called upon IMF to cut its aid
to it.
Meanwhile, eminent defence analyst, and former Director of IDSA, K.
Subrahmanyam, gives a smashing reply to the dishonest babblings of the
likes of Ajit Jogi and I.K. Gujral that Pakisan has not been named in
the G-8 statement as follows in The Economic Times (June 22) :
"If Pakistan's aim in initiating Kargil aggression is to
internationalise the Kashmir issue and invoke the mediation of UN or
Western powers, particularly the US, then the statement of G-8
countries dashes its hopes for the present. While not naming Pakistan
specially, the statement does not leave that country and the rest of
the world in any doubt that the violation of the Line of Control was
an irresponsible act and the status quo cannot be altered through
violence... It recognises that the LOC was breached by armed
intruders. It demands the re-establishment of the LOC and also
emphasises the need to respect it in the future... it has immensely
strengthened the inviolability of the LOC By implication it comes out
against future Kargils, about the possibility of which Mr. Nawaz
Sharif has spoken."
Militant Islam scares the West
Meanwhile, Dileep Padgaonkar, The Times of India's Executive Editor
has written on similar line on the G-8 statement in a front page
article entitled "50 years of 'tilt' corrected". "Though Pakistan is
not named, but the burden of the statement is unmistakable", he says.
It calls for the cessation of fighting and resumption of dialogue "but
only after there is immediate end to the action of infiltrators and
after the restoration of LOC", he says. Meanwhile, the individual
statements from Washington, Paris, Bonn and Moscow explicitly single
out Pakistan for blame in present crisis. "This statement by five
permanent members of Security Council that Kashmir dispute should be
settled between India and Pakistan is music to New Delhi's ears, as it
marks a clean break with the tilt that has been evident in the
attitude of Western nations in every conflict between the two
countries over the past 50 years."
Meanwhile, the causes that seem to have led to the U-turn by the
Western countries in their attitude towards Pakistan, may be summed up
as under :
1) Pakistan's blatant exposure of its in-built parfidy despite
Vajpayee's 'Bus Diplomacy' of going all the way to Lahore to convey
India's goodwill and sincerity in seeking peace with Pakistan, and
allaying Pakistan's security concerns, resulting in the solemn Lahore
Declaration. Despite this, Pakistan's nuclear threat has particularly
angered and activated the West against it.
2) A Western correspondent had recently suggested that the West is
waking up to the reality that "Pakistan is behind a loose network of
international terrorism. Islam scares Christendom with its repeated
calls for Jihad. India could bank on the fear of a holy war to make
its case better known if it wants to cater to European opinion."
In a nutshell, it means after Communism, Islam is seen as the major
menace by the West, and Pakistan its pincer-head as the ISI has been
hand-in-glove with the likes of Osama bin Laden, the arch anti-US
terrorist leader. Meanwhile, with the end of the Cold War, Pakistan is
no longer useful for USA, as it tries to undermine even the secular
Islamic republics of Central Asia with the export of Taliban-type
Jihadists.
3) Another weighty reason is Kargil's proximity to Chinese territory.
As the USA is now getting more and more suspicious of China,
Pakistan's bid to cut-off the Srinagar-Leh road is seen as an attempt
to grab Ladakh and link up with China. Meanwhile, emergence of the
renewed Sino-US tension has forced USA to look upon India as a
stabilising force in South Asia. As Pakistan tilts towards China after
loss of its strategic position of the Cold War era, USA sees it as
fanning anti-US terrorism.
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