Dr S M Rahman
India has undergone a psychological transformation and is getting awfully boisterous as it rubs shoulders with super powers, and in the present Post-Cold-War context, USA indeed is a hyper-power. India has been elevated to be its strategic partner. The latent purpose is to augment its clout in both, the military and economic spheres and blow it to a proportion that it is able to challenge and serve as a counter-weight to China. The image of being at par with China – a grand rival in the geo-strategic arena gives it a false feeling of grandeur. USA has earmarked India for a prestigious position to be the surrogate power of USA, which now comprises Afghanistan as well. A similar role was earmarked for Israel in the Middle East.
The subsequent defeats of USA in Iraq and Afghanistan, besides the phenomenal victory of Hezbollah in Lebanon, have shattered the US dream of restructuring Middle East and expansion of Israeli territory. US strategy has now seemingly shifted towards Afghanistan, in which India has been inducted as an important player and quite naively Bush administration feels that it will contribute to the “final” victory. When the chips are down, India would never venture to confront China.
In order to justify India’s belligerent role, Afghanistan, which has traditionally been part of Central Asian region has now been proclaimed by USA to be a part of South Asia, which is already suffering from the coercive power syndrome, due to the territorial size India possesses. Practically every neighbour of India has experienced the pain and agony, due to the empire-building propensity, India has inherited from British colonialists. Henry Kissinger, in his paper presented to the three-day high level conference held at Beijing (September 4-6, 1996) on China and Asia in the 21st Century, said: “India emerges into great power status. It can be expected to return to the policies of the British Raj which were after all conceived by the Indian civil service under the Viceroys located first in Calcutta and towards the end of British rule in New Delhi. It will seek an influential if not dominant role in the arc extending from Aden to Singapore.”
Kissinger’s contention proved right except that it was more towards outright dominance and control. Except for Pakistan, which refused to play second fiddle to India, all other South Asian countries succumbed to its pressure. Skim was annexed; Bhutan totally subservient, Bangladesh, its own creation, very soon revolted to its exploitative measures and is not ready to kneel down to its imperialistic demands. Sri Lanka is an eloquent testimony that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan, the LTTE, perhaps one of the worst breed of terrorism, has been trained by the Indian Army. Nepal and Maldives have gone through their own traumatic experiences. The creation of Pakistan, left two options for India, to accept it in good grace and reconcile to the reality, even feel relieved that the subcontinent was only divided into two – India and Pakistan.
Z A Bhutto in his book “The myth of Independence” has rightly said that it would have been broken into several more pieces. His contention was not unfounded. F. Saleem, a statistically oriented journalist, maintains that “the house-grown militant entities have spread like wild fire all through India’s 2973.190 sq km of land now. According to South Asian Terrorism Portal at least 231 of the Indian 608 districts are currently afflicted at differing intensities by various insurgent and terrorist monuments.” There are different breeds of terrorists in India – the right, the left and outright separatists. The left breed of terrorists are perhaps the most brutal ones like People’s Guerilla Army, People’s war groups, Marxist Communist Centre, the Communist party of India, Janashake and so on. The break down, as provided by F. Saleem is indeed alarming. In Assam, there are at least 35 known separatist groups. In Manipur there is Peoples Liberation. In Meghlana, Peoples Liberation front of Meghlana. In Nagaland alone the insurgent groups are operating. In Punjab 12, in Tiripura 30, Mezoram has 2, besides Arunchal Dragon Force in Arunchal Paradesh. With so many terrorist groups operating within India, the Indian Prime Minister dubs Pakistan as the epicenter of terrorism. There is an attributional error, to blame Pakistan for every event that happens. No time is lost in attributing the locus of causality to Pakistan and not look inwards which is required of a mature individual or a nation. Externals distort realities and Internals are dispassionate self introspectionists.
This is the chronic malady that India suffers from a strategy of self-deception. India is keen to project Pakistan in as many shades of dark as possible and the “India’s shining image” is self gratifying. But realities have the inherent tendency to bounce up and destroy all myths and deceptions. The ‘Parliament attack episode which was attributed to Pakistan, ultimately came to surface that, it was an indigenous operation. Ilzaam ham un ko daitey they Kasur apna nikal aaya
(We always attributed blame to you, but the fault ultimately surfaced, and it was ours) Of the two decisional choices, India adopted a recalcitrant approach to overwhelm Pakistan, with its massive weaponry including high profile weapons of Mass Destruction. Quaid-e-Azam had a peaceful orientation. He thought that partition of the sub-continent would start off on a paradigm of peace and inter-existence and that they would burry the past. He said it while leaving for Karachi to lay the foundation of Pakistan: “The past must be buried and let us start afresh as two independent sovereign states of Hindustan and Pakistan. I wish Hindustan prosperity and peace.” He thought that they would live like peaceful neighbours – Canada and USA.
Dr Rajendra Prasad, a veteran congress leader, held a different view: “Distrust which is the basis of the proposal is bound to grow and any hope that after separation things will settle down and the independent states will soon become friendly, will have been built on sand.” V.P Menon’s famous contention: “Divide in order to Unite” is the overriding factor in the Indo-Pak Relations and there is still a lurking hope that some day Pakistan could collapse, and beg to be reintegrated into the Indian Union, is as self-defeating as ridiculous. Similarly for Kashmir, against all moral commitments, the great democratic leaders like Nehru reneged on the promises and commitments and that militarily they would sustain the occupation. This again is a very naïve appreciation of history and also the minds of the Kashmiris in the Indian Held territory. Six to seven lacs Indian soldiers, are unable to stiffle their voices. Despite 60-70 thousand casualties, the Kashmiri issue as patently vibrant as it was several dictates back. The will of the people cannot be suppressed for very long. The liberation struggle has created several organizations, which unfortunately have been dubbed as terrorists in orientation. Freedom struggle can in no way be equated with ‘terrorism’. Could George Washington be labeled ‘terrorist’?
After the cold war, USA, which was supposedly an ally of Pakistan, is now all out to support India. It is totally blinded to the stark realities of how pitiable is the plight of people living below the poverty line, caste hatred culminating into colossal human rights violations. The atrocities against the minorities, the lower caste Dalits, besides Christians and Muslims are of incredible proportion. Had Pakistan not felt the looming threat to its existence, democracy would have taken much deeper roots and it could be salvaged from the pitiable plight of being a praetorian state and now it is on the road to democracy, India never wants democracy to flourish, so that Pakistan’s global image remains tarnished. The language and temper of India is markedly belligerent against Pakistan.
It is mainly because it sees that Pakistan is under pressure on its western orders. It is opportune time to pressurize Pakistan from the eastern side. The Mumbai affair is a ploy and part of strategy, which is aimed at breaking the ‘Will’ of Pakistan. The redeeming factor is that India has conscientious objectors like Arundhati Roy, who has written a very objective article: ‘9 is not 11 Nov isn’t September (Daily Time 13 Dec 08) she said: “It’s hard to understand why those who steer India’s ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan’s mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A super power never has allies. It only has agents.” She further explains why war rhetoric is so rampant in India. “On the plus side, the advantage in going to war is that it’s the best way for India to avoid facing up to the serious trouble building on our home front.” This is India’s diversionary technique. But to those who are close watchers of Pakistan know that Pakistan is always at its best when a threat comes from the eastern border. The unity which otherwise appears fragile in Pakistan, suddenly shoots up to an incredible limit. So never provoke Pakistan with the threat of war. “If you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost.” (Forster Dulles)
