Disdainful and contemptuous disregard for United Nations standing Resolutions for plebiscite in Kashmir, sponsoring terrorism in neighbouring countries, committing repression and human rights crimes including rape, murder, abduction and conversion of minorities, forced labour and human trafficking besides the spree of intolerance, its population equal to that of the United States living without power, its north emitting foul toxins like mercury and arsenic dangerously polluting the environment, and with a satiated desire to subjugate smaller nations; this is India vying for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
Pakistani leadership of late had been going head over heels to appease India despite its intransigent track record and to develop a quid pro quo for co-existence, cooperation and development of poverty stricken teaming millions on both sides. The Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif earned the flak of his people as he went an extra mile responding to Narendar Modi's invitation to attend his swearing-in despite his derogatory electioneering outbursts against Pakistan and bias against Muslims. But with Modi's belligerence and Indian abetting of Pakistani Taliban in the tribal north, fanning ethnicity in the south and aiding BLA in Baluchistan besides constant border violations, the Pakistani Premier has finally plucked courage to tell both India and Obama, that the new-found US partner was unfit both for the policing role in Post-Nato Afghanistan and patently ineligible for the mantle in the UN Security Council.
When once during the current spate of deliberate unprovoked firing by Indian forces across the border, the Indian side invited two Pakistanis for a flag meeting and instead shot them dead refusing even to hand over their bodies to Pakistan, it not only further obviated Indian pig-headedness, but also demonstrated dismal incapacity of the Pakistani Government to highlight Indian intransigence to the world if not seek instant revenge and let the world know; not that in doing so it would have risked equating itself to Israeli and American conduct against other nations. It ought to be clear to countries like Pakistan that no amount of 'Good Boy' certification by the US was likely to earn them any respect or attention among the comity of nations unless they themselves stand up to be counted.
At a renowned national forum the Jinnah Institute in Pakistan recently, participants noted that mounting anti-Pakistan rhetoric by Indian leaders was shrinking the space for peacemakers and peace constituents on both sides of the border. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most recent statements against Pakistan in Bangladesh claiming to have engineered the fall of Dacca, reflected New Delhi's new provocative posturing. The current impasse between New Delhi and Islamabad continue to be a cause for concern with the cease-fire in tatters. Indian policymakers were not only indifferent to reconciliation with Pakistan but also increasingly legitimising use of sub-conventional warfare. Participants further agreed that reducing the bandwidth of the Indo-Pak dialogue process to the Lakhvi Trials was a mistake, and left little room for optimism.
The divide is now becoming clearly apparent, as Pakistan's so-called western ally and its hegemonic cartel continues to woo India too far in preference to Pakistan, in the hope to contain the rising power of China. While the West continues to try and distract China into an armament and military race, it is actually weary of the economic ascendancy achieved by the People's Republic of China due to its avowed policy of non-interference in the affairs of other nations, which has helped them remain focused on development. As for Pakistan, it must have no illusions that it can win the confidence of the US, and it is in their interest to continue forcefully cementing its bonds with the all-time trusted China, besides endeavouring to cement fractured ties with neighbouring Russia, and Afghanistan whose porous border required deft handling.
Pakistan is already on course having displayed its solidarity on projects like Sandak and Gwadar in Baluchistan, the Thar Coal in Sindh and exploration in Southern Punjab, the Heavy Mechanical Complex and Co-production of the JF-17 Thunder fighter epitomising exemplary bondage. But such is the state of sickness of the Indian mindset that the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor recently inked and on course between the two countries, which opens new vistas of development and prosperity for the region, is instead causing convulsions in the Indian rank and file.
On the flip side, History is in evidence that despite Pakistan's 'Yours Truly' conduct and a key role in establishing US-China relations, the US was continuing its stick and carrot approach to barely keep the country afloat, and hopefully in the stranglehold of its donor proxies. Both India and the US will continue to bash Pakistan on the issue of Terrorism; a phenomenon expertly planted by them in the region. Terrorism was unheard of in this part of the world before Desert Storm, 9/11 and invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Indian non-acceptance of the creation of Pakistan is no secret as betrayed in Indira Gandhi's declaration after severing its Eastern Wing militarily and through espionage and infiltration that she had sunk Pakistan's Two Nation Theory in the Bay of Bengal.
As for American overtures lately to India, it is admittedly the basic right of all countries to further their mutual economic interests and no one including Pakistan should crib about it. The US has its armament to sell and there is no bigger market than India for investment and trade. Although China's trade volume with India despite their border disputes is already five times compared to what the US is still contemplating, it underscores the necessity for mutual trade even among warring factions. It would be understandable, therefore, if Obama's visit to India twice during his tenure was to explore the Indian market.
But clearly Obama's concessions to India on nuclear cooperation and assigning it the policeman's role in Post-Nato Afghanistan looks beyond that, and was actually designed to beef it up as a counterweight to China and demonstrates its discomfort with China-Pakistan cooperation. The equation being sought to be struck by both India and the US appears to be on course; one, because due to their size and potential they are matched at the bargaining table, and two, that both have the common goal to overpower China and keep Pakistan its principal partner at bay, which has an enviable geo-strategic position in the region sitting at the cross-roads to Central Asia. Furthermore, with the Gwadar Seaport holding the key as the major corridor to maritime world trade in the future, it is thoughtlessly being considered a matter of concern by its adversaries.
India has so far played its cards close to its chest, and successfully milked both the East and the West. While it harnessed the best of Russian weaponry and technology during the cold war prior to Soviet disintegration, it has skilfully manipulated the US which at least for now, is the sole leader of the unipolar world though rapidly reversing in the face global realities of a rising China and re-emerging Russia. India succeeded in diverting Obama's post-election intent to resolve the main irritant of Jammu and Kashmir between the two nuclear Asian Nations by raising the bogey of terrorism in tandem with the 9/11 twin tower self-staged US drama implicating Afghanistan, and blaming the Delhi Parliament and Mumbai attacks on Pakistan, the veracity of which years down the line remains unverified as does that of the twin tower episode.
As Pakistan played thanks to its Commando President Pervez Musharraf, by being drawn into the so-called war on terror itself initiated by the Allied Forces led by the US, from where the collective might of the Allied Nations led by the US has had to pull a defeatist retreat, only to further aggravate the situation for Pakistan leaving it to weather a fresh wave of refugees and continuing to pay the price for the forced war besides encountering terrorism from across the porous and inhospitable terrain of Afghanistan.
The Indian-American nexus has instead gone on to export and transplant terrorism to the Muslim Nations in the Asian region in order to disintegrate the rising potential and power of Asia, entrench themselves in the thriving market and exploit its vast reservoir of resources. No wonder Obama saw no evil, heard no evil in the exploding myth of Indian secularism where contrary to the declared International norm, the freedom to adopt or practice the religion of one's choice as a fundamental human right was being flagrantly violated ever since her Independence, but specially now with the ruling BJP and its extremist allies RSS and Shiv Sena exposing the true face of supposedly Secular India to the world.
In declaring his support for India for permanent membership of the UN Security Council, Obama has conveniently become an ostrich, reneging from his pledge and ignoring Indian track record in Indian-held Muslim Kashmir refusing to submit to standing UN Resolutions for a plebiscite in the State, and forced conversion of the poor among Muslims, Christians and Sikh minorities to Hinduvta, notwithstanding desecration of the historical Babri Mosque, burning and charcoaling alive of Muslims in Samjhota Express Train, and the massacre of 2000 Muslims in Indian Gujarat of which, Modi the present Indian Premier, was the Chief Minister and the chief architect.
(The writer is a veteran media professional, analyst of political, social, cultural, Television and film industrial issues. He can be reached at email:[email protected])
Comments
Comments are closed.