Author: Dileep Padgaonkar
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 11, 2001
Not even the most hardened cynic
could have failed to warm up to the scene. Here was a group of Pakistanis,
most of them barely out of their teens, chatting with a few Indian journalists
for well over an hour. They spoke with much bonhomie about their shopping
sprees in Delhi, the warmth of Indians, their disappointment that they
were unable to watch the Republic Day parade, about the galleries and museums
they visited, the foods they had discovered, about films and film-stars
and music.
The remarkable feature about the
conversation with these students of the National College of Arts in Lahore
was the absence of bitterness or hostility towards India. Not once was
there a reference to Kashmir or to the political tensions between the two
countries. Past the initial embarrassment of meeting strangers in an alien
environment, they were bubbling with curiosity and joy.
The same atmosphere prevailed at
a get-together in the Capital with a Karachi-based group of professionals
from the worlds of designing, art, journalism and business. The visitors
were in India for the maha kumbh mela. They not only wished to witness
the spectacle of millions of people taking a dip in the holy waters but
also to share in the spiritual experience. Words like shraddha and bhakti
peppered their remarks. These were westernised liberals who, while remaining
deeply committed to their country, also "felt for India".
By their own admission, they were
not at all representative of Pakistani society. However, they were at pains
to convince the Indians that the "fundos" (fundamentalists) were an equally
marginal lot. Pakistan, they asserted, would resist going the Taliban way.
The evidence, alas, points in the
opposite direction. In a recent issue of the Economic and Political Weekly,
Yoginder Sikand, quoting chapter and verse, drives home a point that should
send alarm bells ringing in chancelleries around the world: the Jihadis
believe that it is their religiously-ordained duty not only to 'liberate'
Kashmir and merge it with Pakistan but to use force to impose Islam world-wide.
India is a special target of these
groups. At a mammoth public meeting held in the wake of the Kargil debacle,
Hafeez Muhammad Saeed, a leader of the Markaz Da-awat-ul Irshad, the ideological
mentor of the armed organisation Lashkar-I-Taiba, declared: "Today I announce
the break-up of India, Inshallah. We will not rest until the whole of India
is dissolved into Pakistan." The EPW article also quotes Amir Hamza, the
editor of the organisation's Urdu journal as saying: "We ought to disintegrate
India and even wipe India out."
Liberal Pakistanis might well argue
that such groups do not command any real following in the country as is
evident from their poor showing in successive elections. They might even
assert that Hindu fundamentalist groups exist in India too. And that, unlike
in Pakistan, they exert some control on the levers of power.
These arguments are, of course,
specious for no extremist Hindu organisation has taken up arms against
Pakistan. Moreover, even the feeblest governmental indulgence towards it
comes under instant fire from liberals. The efforts of the Hindu extremists
to harass the minorities meets with a strong riposte from the media and
a cross-section of the political class.
We have yet to hear one statement
from the establishment in Pakistan condemning the Jihadis. Can General
Musharraf summon the political will to restrain them? This is a tall order.
Military regimes in Pakistan are not exposed to popular sentiment or eager
to heed it. But the price to be paid for this indifference can be colossal.
That was clear in 1971. Moreover, the ouster of elected governments which
sought a thaw in Indo-Pakistan relations speaks for itself. This is why
there is an air of unreality about the instant bonding that takes place
during the people-to-people and the Track II parleys.
Only a robust indication that the
Chief Executive and his corps commanders realise the futility of the Jihadis'
violent efforts to wrest Kashmir from India can goad New Delhi to go the
extra mile. The General may have given precisely this indication, though
a hesitant one, with his announcement that he is prepared to meet India
half way to resolve the Kashmir dispute. Perhaps he reckons - and in this
he is not mistaken - that a military regime in Islamabad and a BJP-led
government in New Delhi are ideally placed to ensure that hope rhymes with
history.
