Pak’s trouble

 

PAKISTAN’s trouble, its trauma, is spiritual in nature. It carries a deep sense of hurt when it sees Islamic countries making efforts to befriend India and its Prime Minister -- Mr. Narendra Damodardas Modi. Mr. Narendra Modi’s recent tour -- of Jordan, Ethiopia, and Oman highlighted this fact once again. The three hosts received Mr. Modi in the most unique manner and bestowed upon him their highest civilian honours. They entered into different agreements with India in Mr. Narendra Modi’s presence and locked themselves in long-term -- even strategic -- arrangements with India on economic and security issues. In Pakistan, its ruling and elite classes burned in jealousy, shock and anger that India was able to form purposeful friendships even with Muslim countries. For, in other words, India’s success on that count portended Pakistan’s failure to impress upon the Muslim world the importance of harbouring hostility towards India on the Kashmir issue so as to side with Pakistan.

 

Each time Mr. Modi embarks on well-publicised tours of different countries -- especially Muslims ones -- Pakistan burns in indignation. It feels shocked that other Muslim countries do not consider India as their enemy on any count. Much to the contrary, those countries often find a long-term, all-weather friend in India led by Mr. Narendra Modi. Pakistan’s real trouble, thus, is that most other Muslim countries do not share the Pakistani extremist-Islamic ideology. They might have sympathised with Pakistan on occasions about the Kashmir issue, but they have refrained from demonstrating their anti-India tilt. For them, the Indian stand on Kashmir has its own substance and that they need not disturb the bilateral ties with India on that count.

 

The guys in Islamabad just fail to understand this stance. They feel bewitched that India carries such a deep and powerful influence even in the majority of the 56 countries in the Muslim world. When Pakistan positions itself against anything India does suggesting a genuinely secular thought and action with appropriate importance to Hindu interests, Pakistan burns in anger. In sharp contrast, the Indian Prime Minister goes to several Muslim countries to inaugurate Hindu temples with investments in millions of dollars. The Pakistanis then get angry that their Muslim brethren have no respect for Islamabad’s stand on what it terms as Islamic issues. On one hand, this may be described as a success of India’s sensible and balanced foreign policy -- and a failure of Pakistan’s one-sidedness of Islamic ideology. India, of course, refrains from even using the word ‘Islam’ or ‘Islamic’ in its diplomatic narrative. And that is the reason why the Indian narrative is being welcomed all over the world, let alone the Muslim segment.

 

On the contrary, Pakistan’s failure comes from its fanatic adherence to its Muslim Umma (brotherhood) narrative -- which Pakistan does not realise. This inability to understand the crux of the issue marks Pakistan’s singular failure in international arena to earn friends even in the Islamic world. The Pakistanis just do not understand this detail -- for they are not prepared to take a pause and ponder over the reality of India’s success in diplomacy and geopolitics. When India talks of strategic partnership, it is referring to a wide range of issues covering geographical security, food security, energy security, health security, environment security -- and even security of intangible assets of any country, of any society. For Pakistan, all this is far beyond its comprehension or even cognitive ability. It has a standard and staid definition and does not want to search for something deeper and more relevant to the current times. Hence its discomfiture. But Pakistan and the Pakistanis must burn in anger and jealousy about India and its continued success in all fields. That is Pakistan’s destiny -- until one day it would implode and see its own end, in foreseeable future.