As the now-defunct, pro-Soviet, semi-left representative of the daily Patriot and Link Newsweekly in Moscow, I had the chance to interact with foreign correspondents at Moscow's Press Centre of the Soviet Foreign Affairs Ministry. One of them was Shah Nawaz, who represented the Pakistani daily The Muslim, which collapsed in the late 1990s.
Shah, as I used to call him, had married a Russian girl, had two lovely children, and had settled in Moscow. Despite being a Muslim correspondent, he also did some business on the side to earn extra bucks — importing leather jackets from Pakistan and selling them in Russia.
Soon, we became friends — and he would often visit our house, situated not far from the Kremlin, with his family. His children would play with mine. Shah would often tell my wife Shruti, “Bhabhi, roti khane aya hoon...” Indeed, it was all Russian food at his home. He rarely saw a chapati. His wife also liked chapatis and would wonder how they were made.
During our interactions, we often discussed Indo-Pak relations. I would frankly share my view — that Pakistan was founded on a negative ideology, built on anti-India sentiment, which its ruling elite used to maintain their grip on power. The day this sentiment faded, I said, the country would collapse like a house of cards — which is one reason why it isn’t interested in resolving the Kashmir issue.
I would cite the example of their national language, Urdu. It is the language of Delhi and Meerut — of the Muhajirs who migrated to Pakistan during Partition. Pakistan had several regional languages — Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, and Balochi — and those who spoke them often didn’t see eye to eye. Such was the level of inter-ethnic conflict in the country.
I would quote what Urdu poet Firaq Gorakhpuri once said to Faiz Ahmed Faiz, an ethnic Punjabi and a towering Urdu poet from Pakistan. At a mushaira in India, when both were on stage, Firaq told Faiz, “If you don’t mind, Faiz saheb, I would like to say this: when a Punjabi speaks in Urdu, it seems he is a liar.”
Shah would not only agree with me but would also say that the country was controlled by a powerful elite of feudal lords and military barons, who dominated politics to the detriment of democratic forces. While I had never seen his daily, he would tell me it was an independent paper — something the rulers didn’t like. He mentioned prominent journalists associated with it, such as Mushahid Hussain and Maleeha Lodhi (who later became Pakistan’s ambassador to the US and the UN).
Once, while we were sipping coffee in the Press Centre’s Coffee House, a man in formal attire walked in. Shah welcomed him warmly. He was a senior official in the Pakistani Embassy in Moscow. It was the first time I was meeting a Pakistani diplomat, so I thought of discussing with him the issues Shah and I often talked about.
“Ever since Indira Gandhi’s days, many of them insisted India should do something to end military control in Pakistan. They wanted Atal Behari Vajpayee to act firmly against the military. They used to tell me how tired they were of Pakistan’s rulers and wanted to get rid of them. They specifically said it was the Pakistani military that exported terrorism to India, and asked me to convey their views to Indian authorities,” said Anand Sahay (photo), a keen Pakistan watcher.
When I asked him whether things had changed, Anand Sahay — who has worked with several major dailies, from Patriot to The Times of India and The Asian Age, and now writes analytical commentary for some of the best-known online news portals — told me there’s little reason to believe they have. “I’ve seen videos where Pakistanis celebrated India’s Operation Sindoor, hoping it would weaken the army’s grip over the country’s politics.”
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