India's Knee-jerk Reaction Against Kashmiri Students
20 March 2014
By Saeed Qureshi
The suspension of 66 Kashmiri students and slapping
them with sedition charges for celebrating Pakistan
cricket team's victory against Indian team is patently
an uncalled for and outrageous action. Although the
sedition charges were later dropped but the local
administration is still intent on "investigating other
offenses". It was a knee jerk reaction and could have
been avoided by the Utter Pradesh government. In such
situations the tempers usually run high and show of
unguarded exuberance cannot be ruled from the
supporters of the winning side. The sentimental
expression of national ego is always at the bottom of
game competitions between India and Pakistan.
As part of the Asia Cup series 2014, this 6th group
match was played at Sher-e- Bangla Stadium Mirpur
Bangladesh on March 2 between two bitter contenders.
The Pakistani team won this thrilling match by one
wicket with still two balls remaining. The credit for
this stunning victory goes to all time hitters of six
Shahid Afridi. The cricket matches between India and
Pakistan are invariably tense and excitement ridden.
This victory for Pakistan came after a serious of
defeats of the Pakistan team at the hands of Indian
team.
Despite being a pacifist and a votary of abiding
friendship between India and Pakistan, I am not ready
to buy the argument that Pakistan and India can ever
sincerely become peaceful and tolerant neighbors as
one can bear out from the latest appalling action by
the Meerut police. It is a far cry and rather an
impossibility that there was an earnest desire even at
the peoples or masses' level for peace and
friendliness between the two neighborly nations.
Notwithstanding their off-repeated sweet nuances and
profuse pious planks to live in peace, they would not
hesitate to lambast each other for minor irritants
followed by revenge and battle cries.
It is primarily a thousand years' historical
bitterness and deep seated animosity between Hindus
and Muslims that pop up during even a mild conflict
and transform into bloody communal riots. Hindus think
that Muslims were primarily aliens and intruders into
the sacred Hindustava or "Bharat Mata" and that they
have no right to live and survive in the Indian
subcontinent. The Muslims, though, ruled India until
the British took over, seldom indulged in the
persecution or ethnic cleansing of the religious
minorities. The Muslim rulers like Akbar married with
Hindu women and invariably treated Hindu population
well and on equal level.
In the present times we are witness to a sequence of
communal conflicts in India in which minorities were
murdered with extreme vengeance and utter callousness.
The genocide of Sikhs in 1984 and Muslims in Gujrat
riots (2002) and occupation and demolition of Babri
Mosque in 1992 by Hindu fanatics and ensuing
bloodletting are of the recent origin and are awash
with the blood of the countless innocent minority
victims. Over a million Muslims were killed during the
partition of India in 1947 by both Hindu marauders and
Sikh armed gangs. The Muslims too whipped up the
horrific orgy of blood of the Hindus and Sikhs
emigrating from newly born Pakistan to India.
Let me reproduce some portions of my previous articles
on this theme to further expound my view about the
murky nature of relations between India and Pakistan
even in the future.
Pakistan and India can never be good friends and
neighbors because there is no good will or an earnest
desire that comes from heart to resolve the
contentious issues bedeviling their relationship for
over six decades. At people's level, the deep-seated
animus can be witnessed when a match is being played
or a situation of tension like the attack on a Bombay
hotel arises between the two countries.
The bitterness and antagonism are spawned by the
hardliners and fanatics of all sorts on both the
sides, most notably the religious outfits. As such in
a festering animus-loaded environment, it is difficult
to presage if Pakistan and India can forget their
strife ridden past and embark upon a path of enduring
friendship.
The peace between these two neighbors would remain
elusive until they come to a genuine and sincere
realization to bury the hatchet and come to terms with
each for finding a solution of the contentious issues
bedeviling their relation for almost seven decades
now. Unfortunately thus far, India and Pakistan have
failed to sort out their mutual disputes for lasting
peace and good neighborliness. There is no precedent
in the past that they worked out and practically
implemented bilateral agreements with regard to such
thorny issues such as the demarcation of borders,
mutual trade, the apportionment of water from rivers
flowing down into Pakistan or the paramount lingering
Kashmir issue. The Indus Basic Treaty was breached by
India being the upper riparian.
There is no record of sitting down and coming up with
a recipe of veritable peace and friendship by the two
neighbors liberated from the British colonial yoke in
1947. India will not give up her hold on Kashmir, nor
will Pakistan or Kashmiri nation relinquish or forego
their claim about holding a pledged plebiscite to
elicit the local population's opinion as to which
country they would prefer to join. Indian deems
Kashmir as an integral part of Indian federation while
Pakistan's standpoint is that Kashmir is a disputed
territory whose final status has yet to be determined
by the people of Kashmir though a plebiscite.
Both the countries have not been able to smoothen and
ease flow of cross border travel because of stringent
visa rules that bar the travelers from either country
to go beyond the cities specified in the passport. The
intelligence operatives chase and keep a strict watch
on the visitors until they depart. There have been
many instances when a visitor was apprehended on mere
suspicion and languished in Indian or Pakistani jails
for years.
The three wars, in 1948, 1965, and 1971 followed by
brief skirmishes in Kargil in July 1999 have failed to
bring about change of hearts on both the sides.
India's military intervention in Bangladesh in 1971
led to the dismemberment of Pakistan and a humiliating
defeat for the Pakistan's armed forces. The Simla
Agreement signed in 1972 between India and Pakistan,
binds both the countries to settle all contentious
issues via parleys to be conducted in the framework of
the UN Charter.
Besides, since the inception of both the states in
1947, Pakistan has remained under unrelenting
diplomatic, military, economic, and psychological
pressure from India. So the talk of CBMS (confidence
building measures) is a mere ploy to obfuscate the
real issues. Both countries have varying and different
interpretation for CBMS.
For Pakistan, primarily it is the easy movement of
citizens of both the states without much of harassment
and strict conditions. For India, it is to allow India
to export her goods to Pakistani without any let or
hindrance. While Pakistan has ever remained ready to
talk on substantive issues India's priorities and
prerogatives have been focused on pushing them to back
burners or keeping in a state of limbo.
Now building of 22 barrages by India on rivers
emanating from Kashmir apart from being a violation of
the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, would give a complete
control to India to stop or release water to Pakistan,
which is a lower riparian. India agreed to sign Indus
Basin Treaty because it deprived Pakistan of three
rivers. If Pakistan doesn't get enough water, it would
be exposed always to a looming threat of drought and
famine. Tacitly India's preference has been to turn
Pakistan into a market for disposal of her products
both industrial and agricultural.
The fact is that primarily it is Pakistan that would
be the major beneficiary of the illusive settlement of
the outstanding issues between India and Pakistan. For
that matter, India would not let Pakistan off the hook
lest it can move forward on a course of stability,
progress, and prosperity. By facilitating cross border
trade Pakistan would earn 12 billion dollars per
annum.Until and unless there is an overwhelming
goodwill or an earnest desire to resolve the
contentious issues bedeviling their relationship, the
good neighborly relations and lasting friendship
between Pakistan and India would remain elusive and
hung up on tenterhooks of belligerency and deep
distrust.
While Pakistan is caught up in the throes of a civil
war at home front besides fighting a prolonged proxy
war for the west, it cannot afford to ignite a crisis
situation that can lead to another war and military
confrontation with India. Given the Indian expanding
role and interests in Afghanistan, Pakistan is
genuinely worried that it night get a push both from
the eastern and western fronts once the foreign
occupation troops leave Afghanistan. But in view of
the emerging scenario after exit of NATO and American
troops from Afghanistan, the race for dominance in
that war ravaged country would alarmingly heighten.
That would add up to another conflict for a foothold
in Afghanistan embittering their already tense
relations. Can they agree to work together for the
reconstruction and uplift of Afghanistan? It is a moot
question.
The writer is a senior journalist, former editor of
Diplomatic Times and a former diplomat. His blog is
www.uprightopinion.com
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments