EDITORIAL: Hope that similar environmental and climate challenges might force rare Pak-India interaction and cooperation where all else has failed is fading pretty fast because there has been no response to Pakistan’s proposal from across the border.
And, as smog season slowly ends, so do chances that the two governments will learn to put their political differences aside and find solutions to problems faced by ordinary people, most of whom live below the poverty line, on both sides of the divide.
Of course, it’s not just smog but also unprecedented heat waves and recurrent flooding that have become regular features in both countries. Yet when Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz proposed a united front against environmental problems, especially the many evils of climate change, the Indian side did not take the offer seriously and chose to completely ignore it. Sadly, this is the typical Indian response to most overtures from Pakistan, especially in the long years that Narendra Modi has been in power.
To be fair, Pakistan has consistently extended the hand of peace since at least the late 1990s. Not much later, when Gen Pervez Musharraf was president, the military was clearly on board when he offered the four-point solution for Kashmir so the most contentious issues could be settled first on the road to peace.
Yet the Indians have sabotaged all such efforts every step of the way. And now, under Modi’s extremist BJP, political differences have extended to all realms, including arts and sports, and the Indians do not engage with Pakistan at all.
This is a shame, especially when it comes to climate problems. Together Pakistan and India make up around one-fifth of the world’s population and, as mentioned, nearly half of them live below the poverty line. Surely, the two countries can help save lives and resources on both sides whenever extreme temperatures, record rainfall and floods strike.
But that’s not possible when one country does not want any cooperation. Some hoped, after BJP’s weaker-than-expected performance in the Indian general election, that Modi and his core support base would finally understand the futility of always playing the anti-Pakistan, anti-Muslim card to rally its core support base, yet such expectations also turned out to be misplaced.
It’s clear that the Indian establishment does not want a departure from the status quo. It rules out foreign mediation, calling all such initiatives “interference” in “bilateral issues”. Yet it also refuses to sit and sort out outstanding issues with Pakistan. Rather, it is constantly raising the temperature, to the point that it’s not even allowing its cricket team to play internationally sanctioned matches in Pakistan.
In such times, no matter how much finding the lowest common denominator makes sense, and how much difference a united front against climate change can make to the lives of people and the economies of both countries, it would not be wise to bank on such breakthroughs. It is unfortunate that India under Modi has very few friends left in the Asian region. If it does not mend its ways and change course now, its arrogance will lead it to a corner where a forced de-escalation will also bring a fair amount of embarrassment.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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