We hope the hubris of Bhartiya Janata Party leadership related to Pakistan on Kashmir would be finally broken with the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. Starting from Narendra Modi’s 56 inch chest narrative during the election campaign when he was seeking the Prime Minister’s position to misleading the nation by claiming that demonetisation and later dilution of Article 370 would end terrorism in Kashmir and more lately statements of Rajnath Singh, S. Jaishankar and Yogi Adityanath claiming that only unresolved issue in Kashmir is the reclamation of its portion occupied by Pakistan, it is quite clear that the BJP leadership was living in a fool’s paradise. They deceived themselves as well as the nation.
The 22 April attack betrays the hollow claims about normalcy and peace in J&K as a result of BJP policies. In fact, all they have done is like an ostrich avoided dealing with the problem of Kashmir. The Prime Minister has probably visited every nation on earth but deliberately avoided Manipur in India and made an unscheduled stop in Lahore in 2015 on his way back from Afghanistan to attend a family function of Nawaz Sharif, Diplomatic relations have been in cold storage since BJP came to power after some visible progress in relations between the two countries during the time of Manmohan Singh as PM.
Narendra Modi in the role of Vishwaguru has advised Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu that this is not an age of war and that they should seek peaceful solution to the problems in their neighbourhood. It is a different matter that India is not at the table when peace dialogues are taking place in the respective two areas of the world. But he hasn’t found time and the political will to talk peace with Paksitan. As part of a delegation led by senior journalist Kuldeep Nayar, after the terrorist attack in Mumbai when diplomatic relations were suspended, in 2010 I have been witness to a meeting with Nawaz Sharif in his farm house outside Lahore in the presence of present PM Shahbaz Sharif in which Nawaz Sharif expressed his desire to have peaceful and friendly relations with India. Overzealous, to seriously explore the possibilities, he invited Kuldeep Nayar next day again for a one-to-one breakfast meeting. In the same trip then President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister and Member of National Assembly, Faryal Talpur, expressed the less understood fact in India that Pakistan is a victim of terrorism rather than its patron. She recounted that against 166 people killed in Mumbai similar terrorist organisations had killed close to 7,000 people in Pakistan by that time.
26 people were killed in Pahalgam. For the last over a year and half almost 90 people are getting killed on an average every day in Gaza by the Israelis. Of course, we feel more remorse for our countrymen killed in Pahalgam, but how much compunction have we exhibited over the heartless killing of Palestinian children and women, who comprise majority of those killed there?
Some people are shocked that identities of those killed were asked by the terrorists before they were shot at in Pahalgam. Have we not witnessed in our country incidents since the ascendance to power of BJP where Muslims and Christians have been targeted by mobs as well as by police for violence and lodging false cases? Last year in September a class XII student Aryan Mishra was shot dead in Faridabad after a chase by cow vigilantes who mistook him for a Muslim cow smuggler. We’ll sow what we reap. We have to recognise that it is the politics of communalsim and the attendant hatred that it spreads which is responsible for internal as well as external violence even though there is a difference of magnitude. Cases of violence based on caste identities, especially against Dalits, and gender identity, i.e., women, have been age old in this land of Buddha and Gandhi.
The knee jerk reaction to Pahalgam massacre has been suspension of Indus Water Treaty, suspension of diplomatic relations, closure of Attari border, cancellation of visas given to Pakistani nationals, etc. Pakistani government has responded similarly. This is quite the opposite of what any visionary statesman would have done. You don’t put fuel in fire. You try to douse it.
We have not witnessed this strong reaction from Government of India after our 20 soldiers were killed in Galwan in 2020, nor have we suspended any relations with China. On the contrary, import-export deficit with China has doubled since Narendra Modi government has come to power. Donald Trump has been foolish enough to make noise about trade war. China has made us surrender in trade silently. Today we are so dependent on China that the government doesn’t openly admit that China is occupying 4,000 sq. km. of our land. No BJP leader talks about reclaiming this land.
India has missed an opportunity to talk to first Imran Khan, who had declared on becoming the PM that there could be no-one better than him to talk peace because he had so many friends in India, and later Shahbaz Sharif, who want friendly and peaceful relations with India for their own stability. By going on blaming the Pakistani military and Inter Services Intelligence, the India government has made the mistake of not engaging with the constituency in Pakistan which wants peace and friendship with India - the political leadership and the civil society. Based on my ten visits to Pakistan, even though limited to Punjab and Sind, I can say that common people in Pakistan yearn for better ties with India because then they’ll have opportunity to travel to India for business, education and academic collaborations, health care, sports, cultural activities including films and last but not the least religious tourism.
The sooner the short sighted BJP leadership will realise that there can be no solution to Kashmir problem without dialogue with Pakistan the better it’ll be for the people of the region. Of course, it’ll have to give up the temptation of mobilisation of its supporters within India for the purpose of winning elections. BJP has to now choose between the interest of the nation and its people and the exploitation of Kashmir issue for political gains.
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*General Secretary, Socialist Party (India)
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