Turning of the screw
The basic premise of any democracy is that all citizens are equal in the enjoyment of their fundamental rights, the freedoms of expression, beliefs, worship, etc. To quote Alfred E. Smith, “Law, in a democracy, means the protection of the rights and liberties of the minority”, unquote. In utter contempt of the Supreme Court edict enjoining the Indian authorities to protect the premises of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the UP State Government stood back as the religious sentiments of the Muslim minority were trampled by the Hindu mob that reduced the mosque to rubble, exposing the farce that goes by the name of a secular democratic India.
Ayodhya was not an incident waiting to happen, this was deliberately stage-managed. The Indian Federal Government well knew that the para-military forces assigned by the State Government to secure Babri Masjid against any damage had no intention to do so, they were well informed by their intelligence sources that plans for the destruction of the mosque were in place and about to be executed. This makes them as culpable as the State Government, even accomplices in this great crime. Now that the old Babri Masjid has been destroyed, the Hindu aim has been accomplished. What good does it do for the Muslims that the debris has been reclaimed bloodlessly? What sentimental value would a new Mosque have for the Muslims, particularly when the Ram temple installed by the Hindu fanatics on top of the debris is still in place? What is the use of banning the virulent extremist organisations like the VHP after the event? Were the Indians deaf to the blatantly anti-Muslim inflammatory rhetoric of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that was unambiguous in vociferously announcing the imminent perpetuation of this deed?
Many in this world fail to understand the underlying logic behind the partitioning of British India into Pakistan and India in 1947. Those who thought that the concept of a divided India was undone by the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 should read the statistics of the present backlash against Hindus in Muslim majority areas in the South Asian sub-continent, the widespread reaction to the Babri Masjid desecration was as spontaneous in Bangladesh as in Pakistan. The Babri Masjid incident puts into focus the continuing official brutality of the Indians against Muslims in Kashmir and symbolizes the decreasing freedom of the minorities in India, not excluding the Sikhs, ethnic cousins of the Hindus. If 150 million people (representing the 20% Muslims in India’s 750 million population) can thus disenchanfrised in all but name, what is the legality of that democracy?
The Nawaz Sharif Government did extremely well in swiftly proclaiming a day of mourning on Tuesday December 8, 1992. Not only was this an excellent way of registering the nation’s protest, it also acted to defuse, to a large extent, the build-up of street emotions over the issue and kept it channellised within manageable limits. Despite stringent precautions by the law enforcement agencies (LEAs), some street mobs did run out of control and burn some Hindu temples, mostly in the Provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. The residence of the Indian Deputy High Commissioner in Karachi was also damaged. All this is intolerable, we must not allow any excess on our minorities or stand by and see diplomatic privileges being thus violated. The Indians brutalized diplomat Ashfaq of our High Commission in Delhi only a few days ago, for the sake of diplomatic nuances we must not retaliate. Two wrongs do not make a right! If the government had not taken the initiative for a protest day, the resultant confrontation between mobs and the LEAs would have led to bloodier conclusions. As it is, the leader of the Opposition, Ms Benazir, for a change, climbed onto the anti-Indian bandwagon and called for a countrywide strike. She also blamed Nawaz Sharif for being soft on India and thus indirectly responsible for the Babri Masjid atrocity. In the face of her known soft stance vis-a-vis India, this is hardly an accusation she can make, but in the spirit of the tradition of democracy it must be noted that she refrained from blaming Nawaz Sharif for the Lunar Eclipse due later this month or for that matter the endangered Bald Eagle in Oregon, USA (or wherever). One hopes that she will respond in the national interest to the Nawaz Sharif initiative for an All-Parties Conference slated for December 10.
The time has come for this nation to make peaceful sacrifices so that our youth do not end up making ultimate sacrifices on the battlefield. This government may have been guilty of over-reaction in the handling of Ms Benazir’s Long March but the over-kill ensured that not a single life was lost, the end thus justifying the means. On the same analogy while one would be mad to want a war with India, it is time to raise the stakes in defining the parameters of any future relationship with that country. As much as our under-developed world would be an infinitely better place to live in having unstinted economic and social cooperation with our huge neighbour, we cannot co-exist with them amicably while they constantly violate the human rights of our co-religionists, brutalizing their life, hearth and home without any restraint. The elite of Karachi may fall over themselves in watching Indian-sponsored Kathak dances and listening to Ghazals, they deserve to be sent down a darker hole for not sacrificing smaller pleasures while unrelenting Indian suppression consigns our Muslim brethren to unremitting pillage, rape and slow death by torture. It is bad enough to stand idly by while Kashmir burns but being susceptible to such an age-old Chanakya ploys compromises our international stance by eroding our commitment and credibility for a greater cause.
Till such time that the problems between India and ourselves are sorted out Pakistan does not need to have any more than the lowest level of diplomatic relationship with them. The strategy of basing future solutions of problems on the development of other relationships in exclusion to those disputes has failed because of deliberate Indian obduracy. For starters let us immediately close down the Indian Deputy High Commission in Karachi without any further ado. They have been blatantly refusing to honour their own pledge in allowing the Quaid’s old residence to be used as the Chancery premises. Over the years the Indian diplomatic presence has badly compromised the rich and powerful of Karachi by wining and dining them in the name of culture. That precious culture should be taught to L.K. Advani and his cohorts who stormed Babri Masjid. Secondly, let us stop all trade and commerce with India, we will survive economically without that input. Thirdly, we must not attend any more meetings of SAARC till the Kashmir problem is solved. Fourthly, our relations with other Muslim countries must be guided by their reaction to the plight of Muslims in India and Kashmir, those indifferent to their miseries must get least-favoured-nation status as far as we are concerned. There are a number of other measures we can take but lastly we must not take part in any international sports activity with India on Indian or Pakistani soil, in particular cricket or hockey. One makes a direct appeal to the infinite judgement of Supreme Court Justice Nasim Hassan Shah, President of BCCP, respectfully requesting him to withdraw Pakistan from the joint bid for the 1995 Cricket World Cup. The love of watching cricket notwithstanding, the blood of Muslims in India and Kashmir must be freezing rather than boiling over at the thought of such collaboration. What contradictory signals are we giving to the world community? One must be naive to assume that the Indians are not using such events to undermine Pakistan’s credibility and/or commitment to the Kashmir cause, particularly with other Muslim countries.
South Asia would certainly be a wonderful sub-continent if there was no conflict but the source of conflict with all the peripheral nations is India. The other nations have no differences with each other. This peaceful region is bound together by an economic fabric that is complementary and can bring the disparate races and religions together in mutual compatibility as it did for centuries before the British came to India. The plight of our poverty-stricken masses should be enough to galvanize the leadership of this region to seek out joint solutions. All this is true but there is also that fatal truth of persisting attempts by India for hegemony. The Caste system of the Hindu religion means that an elite minority, the Brahmans, along with other Castes a step or so lower militate cruelly against treating their own co-religionists as equals, they call them Untouchables. Can one expect their treatment of those of alien religions to be any better? The world must understand that as long as the Caste system exists there can be no democracy or secularism in India, the western penchant for the Mahatama Gandhi philosophy notwithstanding.
Pakistan has no direct quarrel with Israel but because of our unstinting support to our Palestinian brethren we are always on the short receiving end of the international media, a fair amount being Jewish we suffer terribly in consequence. One should at the least expect Yasser Arafat to be more vocal in his support of the interests of Muslims of India and Kashmir. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya recently sent the Pakistan Government a long letter on human rights because of perceived governmental atrocities on Benazir’s never-ending Long March, maybe he will send several hundred letters to India because of that many Muslims killed in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid desecration? We must be more pragmatic in future relationships with Muslim countries and be guided strictly by a quid pro quo formula.
Pakistan faces a most difficult time in the immediate future. While retaining the option of pursuing objectivity in relation to other government, this is a time for national unity. We must strengthen the hands of the present Federal Government on a bipartisan basis so that they can achieve the national objectives. We must not divert from the Selection and Maintenance of one AIM, the emancipation of all Muslims in Kashmir and India. While deploring the fact that temples were burnt and precious lives of some Pakistani Hindus were lost one must assure our minorities that Islam is more secular in its outlook than India can ever be as a nation. If we remain firm in our principles, no amount of intimidation, or for that matter subversion, can divert our resolve.
The time for a Long March was not November 18, it is now! Let our patriotic leaders eschew their differences and make a symbolic Peace March to Srinagar or Delhi, not to Islamabad. The Long March diverted international media opinion away from the sufferings of the Muslims of Kashmir, divine Providence has contrived to bring it right back a hundred-fold because of Indian stupidity over the Babri Masjid. Do our leaders have the potential to rise above themselves and grasp this opportunity for the sake of hundreds of millions of Muslims of the South Asian sub-continent?
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