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So many Pakistans

So many Pakistans

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.
 


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