Shaking Hands by Agha Zafar Hilaly
(One wonders what is the foreign policy of Pakistan? We know what is India’s foreign policy. On every international forum India has nothing to say except to decry Pakistan as a terrorist and a failed state, and to demonise the Muslims as the evil incarnate deserving of being crushed and eliminated. It is doing the crushing of Muslims inside India so well that it needs a cover of propaganda on the international stage. In Afghanistan, it wants the world to do the fighting and India to do the mopping up. But things are not going according the narrative written by India. But it does get satisfaction from the obsequiousness of the Zardari-Gilani regime in Pakistan. Rifah Party of Pakistan considers that the liberation of Jammu and Kashmir – not reopening of never ending sterile ‘composite dialogue’ – should be the focal point of Pakistan’s foreign policy. That is the only way Pakistan can secure its right over the water of Indus, Jhelum and Chenab Rivers. The present rulers are unwilling and unable to secure Pakistan’s interests. The earlier they go; the better. If democracy cannot secure their exit; democracy itself will be discredited. No one wants the return of military rule. But the people expect the mechanisms of ‘rule of law’ to save Pakistan. + Usman Khalid+)
A man who looks you straight in the eye, particularly if he adds a firm handshake, is hiding something. And that is what Manmohan Singh was doing when he grasped Mr Gilani’s hand at the recent Nuclear Summit in Washington. He was quintessentially, “The smiler with the knife under the cloak.”
Only a little earlier, Mr Singh had regurgitated all the venom that he had accumulated against Pakistan. He refused Obama’s offer of a trilateral meeting with Mr Gilani or even a bilateral one. Instead, he expressed apprehension over the end use of US military assistance to Pakistan. Imagine, spending $50 billion purchasing weaponry from, among others, America, and carping that a mite of that amount was acquired by Pakistan. For sheer gall it takes the cake. And, lest Obama miss the point, Mr Singh also insisted, that India would “continue to play its role in Afghanistan”. In other words, continue stoking the insurgency in Baluchistan and, to boot, proceed apace with attempts to create a two front threat to Pakistan.
Nor was Mr Singh quite done, he used the Conference podium to draw attention to AQ Khan’s antics, for which Pakistan has worked hard and mostly successfully to atone, as Obama and the rest of the world conceded. But, of course, not Mr Singh. For him there is no statute of limitations on the errant scientist’s decade old activities. We are back to India believing that what echoes in Delhi is actually the voice of the world.
One is reminded of the Indian boast that the Rajastan nuclear test conducted in May 1974 was actually “a peaceful nuclear explosion” meant to show how “tunnelling the earth” could be made easier. Confronted by such gibberish from an Indian counter part in 1975 one recalls being astounded how a perfectly sane man, till then, could believe what he did.
India has not yet emerged from the unfortunate condition that she had worked herself into after Mumbai. And unless Pakistan does his bidding Mr Singh will not be consoled. Once, Pakistan had a similarly myopic and self defeating stance---that unless India obliged over Kashmir engaging with India was pointless. While we have discarded this fixation, Mr Singh remains mired in his.
Arresting scores of Lashkar followers merely to please India and thereafter be forced to release them by the Courts is a self defeating tactic. In the case of the former the government will be seen as inept and lawless and the latter, conniving. It would be akin to Pakistan demanding that India clamp down on the militant wing of the BJP and, at the very least, their leader Modi, for the Gujerat massacre of Muslims and, when India failed to do so, refuse to dialogue. True, the Muslims killed in Gujerat were not Pakistanis but under the Liaquat- Nehru Agreement of 8 April 1950, which has not been repudiated by either India or Pakistan, each government is pledged to “ensure to the minorities, throughout its territories, complete equality of citizenship, irrespective of religion, a full sense of security in respect of life”, etc, etc, of which Modi’s roaming around free, and subsequent election, as the chief executive of Gujrat, made a mockery.
Had such thoughts crossed Mr Gilani’s mind, it may have deterred him from “scooting over” (Dawn) to shake Singh’s hand at a Conference function. Sadly, Mr Gilani’s impulses never fail to get the better of him. He arrived uninvited to the CJ’s function at the height of the NRO crisis although it did his cause no good; nor will his gushing hand shake stand him in good stead with Mr Singh.
Mr Gilani has a heart that is too soon made glad and too easily impressed. Gestures of the kind he sports are evanescent; they cannot override Indian intransigence. India’s morality, as a 100,000 murdered Kashmiris will testify, is a far off abstraction, utterly unconnected from her active life. If India is in no mood to engage purposefully why not accept it and let India be? It is not as if our life depends on it.
Mr Gilani will face the same quandary in the forthcoming SARC summit where bilateral meetings are unavoidable. He will hear Mr Singh saying: “Whenever you accept our views and demands we shall be in full agreement with you.” It is an old Indian refrain. We, Foreign Office wallas have heard it often. Mr Gilani should not be upset. He should merely stop smiling long enough to point out to Mr Singh that his boorish stance is self defeating.
Unfortunately, the Foreign Office Spokesman seems all too eager for a meeting between Gilani and Singh. The other day, while briefing the press, he claimed he saw “mutual warmth” in the Singh-Gilani handshake in Washington, warmth that was conspicuous by its absence in Mr Singh’s remarks to Obama and the press in Washington. The Spokesman also spoke of “a desire on both sides to end the stalemate in relations.” God alone knows how he formed that impression considering that Mr Singh persists in stiff- arming Mr Gilani and exploiting the issue politically to brow beat Pakistan. Mr Singh’s tactics do nothing but merely raise hackles. “Blow your pipe till you burst” is the reaction here to his constant carping.
Perhaps, Mr Singh should take a leaf out of America’s book when dealing with Pakistan. Having cried themselves hoarse saying “do more,” and getting nowhere under Bush, the Americans decided that positive and intensive inter -action may prove more rewarding. And it worked, relations have smoothed immeasurably. Mr Singh has yet to make that discovery. Perhaps it is worth a try because those who live in the past must yield to people who live in the future or else we will all be headed backwards, which we seem to be, at break neck speed.
That is not to say that Pakistan must not confront the Lashkars. A stupid friend is worse than a clever enemy. Mumbai was inexcusable on every count besides imperilling our security and sullying our image.
Perhaps Mr Singh would do better if he tried to understand how we understand ourselves rather than what he takes us for. That way we may end up talking to, rather than at, each other. But of such subtleties no more, India couldn’t care less. ++
