archive: Fooling Ourselves
Fooling Ourselves
Anees Jilani
Jang, Pakistan
July 13, 1999.
Title: Fooling Ourselves
Publication: Jang, Pakistan
Author: Anees Jilani
Date: July 13, 1999.
Will Washington be Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Tashkent? Field
Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan appeared invincible before the September
1965 war but the war and the events following it, particularly the
Tashkent accord of January 10, 1966, led to a series of events which
culminated in an ignominious downfall of Ayub Khan. Now few people
know where the man who ruled the country with an iron fist for eleven
long years is buried.
There is, however, a marked difference between the two situations.
There is no Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on the scene. Governments everywhere
in the world make blunders but it depends on the opposition's calibre
to grab the opportunity and reap the benefits. The present leadership
appears to generally consist of minions who are totally lost in
Pakistan's political wilderness.
Whoever planned the Kargil phase of the Kashmir liberation struggle
must be credited with a low intelligence and complete lack of
foresight. Even after two months of constant fighting, I still failed
to see the benefit for Pakistan from this latest adventure in Kargil.
If we are liberating Kashmir, then what is stopping us from pursuing
it fully and confronting the Indians head on. Let us have a total war,
not just for ten to fifteen days but one which continues until Kashmir
is liberated.
But we do not want a war. This is what we have been consistently
telling the world and this accounts for the prime minister's desperate
dash to Washington to have a double handshake with President Clinton.
We agreed to respect the sanctity of the LoC and to withdraw our
forces from Kargil. This is exactly what the Indians were demanding
all along and there is nothing more to discuss at least presently.
If, on the other hand, we were realistic and just wanted to bleed the
Indians a little in the midst of their political crisis, then we
miscalculated the Indian reaction and in the process did the greatest
disservice to the secular forces in India by almost guaranteeing BJP's
victory in the coming September elections. Pakistan has been making
one major blunder since BJP came to power in India in February 1998.
It is treating it as it is a Congress government.
Pakistani planners could not have been more wrong. The Congress
leaders negotiated the creation of Pakistan, have been dealing with
the Pakistani leaders since independence as they have been in power
most of the time and are thus familiar and reconciled, to a great
extent, to Pakistan. The BJP, led by the RSS and part of the Sangh
Parivar, is different. It has a specific ideology and a definite hard
line policy towards Pakistan. The party takes a hard line posture even
towards the Indian Muslims. Shiv Sena's Bal Thackeray wants the
Muslims to go to Pakistan if they cannot reconcile to a
Hindu-dominated India. In such an environment, taking over of the
strategic peaks in the Kargil sector could not have come at a more
opportune time for the BJP ruling coterie.
Instead of taking some action against the failure of their
intelligence agencies, the BJP has deliberately generated an
unprecedented war hysteria which has united the whole of India. The
Indian nation considers itself to be at war and no opposition can even
think of opposing the Kargil strategy of the government. Keeping in
mind the weather conditions, it would have been in the BJP's interest
if the Kargil fighting had continued as close to the coming elections
as possible. The war hysteria is still likely to win it enough seats
to comfortably form the next government. This tactic is also
justifiable and perhaps supported by the Indian military as it results
in the minimum casualties. What can be a better gift to Indian voters
then the Indian tricolor flags flying on top of all the Kargil peaks
just before the elections.
Coupled with this excellent electoral strategy, the Indian government
has succeeded in diplomatically isolating Pakistan by showing it as
the aggressor. It would be relevant in this context to quote former
Indian foreign secretary, VK Grover, who recently wrote in the Sunday
Magazine (June 12): "Another war between India and Pakistan is no
answer, nor desirable. We won our wars and lost the peace. In 1948,
Nehru took the Kashmir issue to the UN and in 1972 Indira Gandhi
failed to resolve the Kashmir issue. We need to take a leaf out of the
US book. The former Soviet Union disintegrated without any military
action. The US engaged the Soviet Union in a crippling arms race which
led to its economic collapse. The thrust on human rights, freedom and
open society did the rest. If we were to increase our defence budgets
considerably, Pakistan will find it impossible to match the
expenditure. Disaffection amongst the people of Pakistan will
increase. There is already considerable unrest amongst the other
ethnic minorities: Balochis, Sindhis etc. We should provide every
opportunity for Pakistan to self destruct. It is about time Pakistan
got a dose of its own medicine."
This is exactly the strategy the Indian rulers now appear to be
working on. They first trapped Pakistan to conduct a nuclear test to
match the Pokhran tests and now want it to stay on a war footing for
an unprecedented length of time. Apart from pressuring the economy, it
would also be a test of how much pressure the Pakistani society can
sustain. Sometimes one gets the feeling that the planners of our
Kashmir policy are getting mesmerised by their own propaganda: "The
breakup of India is imminent; hundreds of Indian soldiers dying in
Kashmir and the people's morale high on our side of the border."
While the Indian media is continuously playing up the humane side of
its casualties we do not even mention the names, what to talk of any
other details, about the mujahideen and Pakistani troop casualties.
Either the Indians are shelling rose petals instead of artillery that
no one is getting hurt on our side except little girls or we are
concealing facts. Is it a good strategy for the morale of our troops?
The least their nation can do for them is to give them a decent public
burial, recognizing their greatest service to Pakistan and even
awarding them medals. Instead they are hurriedly buried lest the world
suspects that Pakistani troops are involved in the Kargil imbroglio.
Who are we fooling: the world or ourselves?
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