Identity Crisis

By ANSHUMAN BHARGAVA :

In many cases India has found reliable evidences that the Government of Pakistan has been itself instrumental in pushing many of the misadventures of the terror groups and stray mafias. That it would shelter terrorists and dons is a given, and needs no further scrutiny. bbbbbbbbbb n With its sole purpose of causing trouble in India and upholding and propagating the dogmatic and regressive tenets of Islam, often concocted and distorted from their real moorings for narrow gains, Pakistan’s focus has to be sheltering and promoting groups who could do these successfully.

PAKISTAN and its Intelligence agency have always lied about sheltering Dawood Ibrahim and his accomplices who fled India after the serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993, said former Joint Director, CBI, Shantanu Sen recently. Sen said this after Pakistan did a U-turn, hours after issuing a list bearing the name of Dawood as a designated terrorist along with his address in Karachi. “Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, and Mustafa Dosa, the three absconding accused who planned, financed and along with Pakistan’s ISI executed the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in March 1993 are sheltered by Pakistan. This shelter was given days before the blast and has continued unabated,” Sen, who was in charge of the CBI special task force which investigated the case, said. It is a known fact that Pakistan has always lied about their presence. CBI had painstakingly amassed proof to expose their Pakistan links during the investigation of the Mumbai serial blasts case.

“This material was so meticulously laid bare that there are two concurring judgements of the TADA Court, Mumbai and the Supreme Court of India approving the material of CBI as judicially correct,” he said. It is high time that India should press for Dawood’s deportation and persuade other countries to press Pakistan for the same. “The list of 88 terrorists released by Pakistan’s MEA includes Dawood’s name. We should press for his deportation and persuade other countries to join hands in our efforts. Its present denial of this list is futile in our eyes.

They will always continue in denial, I have no doubt,” the CBI officer said. Earlier a day before, the Pakistan Government had said that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, one of the most wanted in India, was living in Karachi. Islamabad has for years denied that it has sheltered Dawood, responsible for the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, along with other terrorists. On the other hand, India has always and consistently denied this claim, establishing by proof that the blast mastermind was residing in Pakistan.

India has even reiterated its claim at all important international platforms and the latest goof up by Pakistan only vindicates India’s stand. Whether or not the world overtly accepts India’s contention is a different matter of strategy and diplomacy but it is small wonder that much of the world knows that Pakistan is a terror hotbed and all the major terror strikes across the world over the past three decades have their direct or indirect link to Pakistan. In many cases, India has found reliable evidences that the Government of Pakistan has been itself instrumental in pushing many of the misadventures of the terror groups and stray mafias. That it would shelter terrorists and dons is a given, and needs no further scrutiny or elucidation. With its sole purpose of causing trouble in India and upholding and propagating the dogmatic and regressive tenets of Islam, often concocted and distorted from their real moorings for narrow gains, Pakistan’s focus has to be sheltering and promoting groups who could do these successfully.

Without these activities that evoke emotions of religious affinity in a large population of the fraternity and cause global disruption, Pakistan loses its significance in the world and these ploys are thus deliberately devised through meticulous study and preparation at frequent intervals to keep its relevance intact. It has to find out new ways to create tension and keep issues on the boil and then slyly spin and twist the narrative into a tale of self pity and injustice meted out to it – and this is materialised by the deep involvement of the Pakistani army and Government officials.

This victim-card ruse weakens the position of India at times and raises doubts in the minds of the impartial nations as if Pakistan is really a victim, and simultaneously, it also serves the purpose of generating empathy among friendly nations that swiftly come to Pakistan’s support. This is also the reason why Pakistan never positively reciprocates to India’s olive branch she has unconditionally extended several times because it fears its identity will be lost if it comes under the shadow of a helping big brother. Officially, it adheres to the niceties of decorum as compulsions of image building and diplomatic protocols tie it up, but even before the treaties of cooperation and mutual understanding could be signed in Islamabad amid all the fanfare and media hysteria, troops are silently readied at Rawalpindi to sneak into India. India has suffered multiple such breaches of trust but it is impossible to expect Pakistan to think rationally and play its rightful role in the progress of humanity.

India has seen different governments over the last five decades, with different international policies and approaches but none of the approaches within the limits of decency and democracy has succeeded. Unlike a bigoted and rigid Pakistan, India has always been flexible, cooperative and forgiving which is why dealing with India is perfectly a copybook diplomacy of give and take. The democratic values here are ingrained in people’s psyche in a way that can never happen in Pakistan, which is why there is suspicion, disbelief and treachery in its dealings with India. The world knows the strengths of Indian democracy and how precisely all her institutions are geared towards endorsing, practising and celebrating such democracy.

In such a country where the parliamentary checks and balances and Constitutional safeguards are so strongly built into the system, there is little scope of whimsical or arbitrary decisions by any Government or political leadership, and any international treaty thus, can be and should be safely believed to be well judged and mutually beneficial, without ulterior motives. Unless someone is bent on not abiding by the best practices of civilisation, it cannot ignore India and gloss over the benefits of joining hands with her. Despite having the advantage of being the nearest neighbour Pakistan has lost opportunities to improve its own lot by associating productively with India in progressive ventures that could change the way the world perceives the whole region. The military and cultural might of the two countries strengthened by the shared priorities and commonalities in values, emotions, food and languages, along with their vast human resources, could come up as a formidable force of the east, undermining the hegemonic attempts of China. But unfortunately, despite the similarities, the chasm is wide and being made ever gaping by Pakistan’s myopic political vision.

India’s only option is to keep on influencing international opinion by bombarding facts and generate global pressure so that at least things don’t exacerbate beyond what we are already faced with. We need to keep the ball of sins in Pakistan’s court. A military offensive is the last nail in the coffin and might be the easiest and apparently the most logical and effective thing for India to do, but given the colossal losses in war that far outweighs the benefits, notwithstanding the trauma and the bloody aftermaths, so long as we can keep it at bay, better it is for all humanity. By the way, Pakistan may keep taking advantage of India’s compulsive leniency she prefers for the sake of larger humanity, but what guarantee is there that war will sound the end of all the troubles?