Pakistan and India
Sitting here, fogged down and cold, it becomes easy.
But it should not be.
It becomes easy to just let it slide. Wear the ‘so what?’ cap and change the channel.
But not this time.
We are not talking about an open gutter somewhere in the streets of Lahore, we are not talking about the lack of drinking water three blocks down, we are not talking about my and my loved one’s deplorable indifference towards all that is important.
We are talking about the lives of millions. We are talking about war.
During the last three days or so, the situation between Pakistan and India has nothing but worsened. The critic – cynical nonetheless – in me reminds me that Pakistan, with her Zardaris, Gillanis and other cronies has actually played their part well. Too well for comfort, but a well-played innings so far. Consider this:
- India gets her major city Mumbai taken hostage by a handful of terrorists. Why were they there? Terror in the name of what? We are not told clearly.
- Then India, as the three day saga is unfolding, goes ahead and blames the Pakistani government. Note, there is a difference between blaming someone ‘from’ Pakistan and blaming the Pakistani establishment in itself. India, it seemed, blamed both.
- Eventually, India names Jamat-ud-Dawa as the main culprit organization that trained and brainwashed the Mumbai attackers. The UN – based on proof – declares the JuD a terrorist outfit. The JuD is closed down by Pakistan, not because India said so, but because UN says so. Pakistan plays the UN card well, reminding the world that Pakistan listens to world elders (Kashmir being the first point in this case). Pakistan asks for the same proof that India has given to UN. None is presented.
- The Interpol representative rocks up, tells the world that no proof by India was given. Pakistan plays the ‘jaws dropped’ look well, revealing the other two parties as being rash and silly, namely India and the UN. (I on a personal note, has given proof that the Mumbai attackers were really from Malta).
- The intelligence outfit of Pakistan is tried in the world media. To no avail. Where as only a slight glance over the RAW of India reveals some glaringly obvious involvements in more incidents than one.
Now, what is all of this?
Pakistan has played the calm, mature ‘uncle’ part well. As in most families, this uncle can be seen as the coward, the one without the ‘heart’ to fight for its right, only later to realize that the uncle was being the most far-sighted. Of course, this uncle can be called the ‘mamoo’ if it turns out that the resolve and calmness was based on cowardice instead of cold logic.
Nonetheless, India knows well enough that the nuclear bombs are not for display only, and much more potently, Muslims would love nothing more than a state-declared Jihad. The centuries old “We hold death more dear than you hold dear your life” line holds true today as far as any Muslim is concerned.
Jihad is struggle, and in the case of war, it becomes an armed struggle. Armed Jihad is valid, as far as pristine Islam is concerned, in self-defense and has to be on a state level. Pakistan has very clearly, very calmly placed herself in a defensive role. And try as some may to portray it differently, Pakistan is still a state. A Muslim state that the world can see has been pushed into a corner by India.
If war does break out, regardless of the result, the world will bear witness to the above perspective being the truth.
* Rather than worsening, I believe the situation between Pakistan and India has improved during last three days.
* There will not be a war.
* I agree that Pakistani leadership acted prudently during the crisis.
@momekh
On what basis can you claim this statement?
"Muslims would love nothing more than a state-declared Jihad. The centuries old “We hold death more dear than you hold dear your life” line holds true today as far as any Muslim is concerned."
In my humble opinion, most muslims (or humans) love nothing more than their basic life needs being met like roti, kapra and makaan. What Jihad are you referring to? The centuries old concept of fighting the enemies of God. Move on from the 7th century and open your eyes…haven’t you seen the effects of your Jihad on your neighbours Afghanistan and Iran. Be thankful that there is a semblance of western values and democracy in Pakistan hence all women don’t need to cover up and all men don’t have to grow beards. I find it amusing that half of Pakistan is chanting war while humming the tunes of their favourite bollywood films.
With all due respect, this is the time of economic and financial power and whoever yields that gets the rule the roost. I’m sorry if that’s not what you wish for but it’s the way of the world.
@sceptic: yes, some do say that the situation between PK and India has gotten better. But when I say it has deteriorated, I was referring to the build up at the borders.
@azface: of course, everyone loves their basic needs. That was not the point. But the way you associate beards and veils with a word like Jihad is totally understandable. You actually went ahead to compare commendable western values like democracy as being an antonym for Jihad. All due respects, please re-read. The word Jihad has been misused too many-a-times and has been wrongly practiced too-many-a-times. Although your remarks were below the belt, but it is alright. Just try to understand from a third-party’s perspective.
I actually did try to avoid sparking futile debates by mentioning that Jihad is "Armed Struggle for self-defense that a state undertakes". One can call it war, battle, jihad, resistance, scooby doo, take your pick. Please, try to stick to the topic being discussed. Thank you.
I’d suggest you watch something other than Fox News.
Safe to say that the war mongering can be out to rest
A very thought out perspective on Pakistan’s smart handling of the crisis so far. This turns out contrary to our leadership’s past credentials which is obviously good for the country.
Besides, I also heard local media quoting Times of India that Qasab might even have hailed from Indian Hyderabad…
After the internatinal pressure e.g Saudia Arabia, China, Iran, British, US etc India changed its colour again and now looking in his Pajama that how much urine is going into his own shoes.
China announced that he is sending his Air Craft Carrier into Indian See, Iran said that we are standing by, Aghanistan is under our arms, Saudia Arabia said STOP or no more DEAL with you.
Indian Govt with Oldies are out of mind thats what I think, they were just out of the circle, but hey people they will try to stage this DRAMA again soon so be ready.
PEACE
http://air16.blogspot.com/
Good post by Author, very balanced view….
In the present day and age you have to understand that everyone tries to play to the gallery. After the dramatic Bombay episode the Indian govt had to play for the media, had to put forward a brave face and atleast look like they were taking some Israel like action. But the irony facing them is that they are not Israel and Pakistan is still not a "lame" Arab country (millitary wise). Also, Iam not a great fan of this indecisive "Manmohan" government who came to power with a surprise victory in the last elections. For more than two crucial years they literally sat on the good work of "Wajpaee / Mush" for the normailization of relations between the two countries. The train was moving forward with great speed, when all of a sudden it ran out of steam and lost direction. May be Congress was waiting for change in Pakistan, anyway that strategy didn’t work, the extremists on both sides have played their cards and we are back to square one. Strangely not long ago we were talking about free travel for Kashmiris on both sides of control line, and now we have this show boating.
On the Pakistan side there is an interesting mindset change amongst the populace. There is a serene realization after the transition that, we are going no where, we have exhausted all options, turned our backs on development, growth and enlightenment. So now if India attacks, let’s unite and fight it and take it down with us. I guess we are in a grip of a collective suicidal mentality; we all have explosives attached to our bodies so nobody dare touch us. Indeed Pakistan is like a bone which the rest of the world can neither swallow, throw-up nor flush out.
Everyone, including "us" knows that this country is being eaten from inside, as the fanatics grow stronger the educated and progressive go deeper into the quagmire of ignorance, corruption, indecision, denial and misplaced idealism. Everyone likes to be seen to be taking some action but the fact is that even the chemo is not working, as time passes we grow more immune and settle comfortably with our crazy terrorists and shrewd thief’s.
Meanwhile, the poor father of poor Qassaab cries and says that, “He is my son” but nobody wants to believe him.
@ Kami,
Thats how you look, its okay, thats how you think, its okay, thats how you react, its okay, we are positive nation and we do reply you in positive action…So you write what you think and we write what what is right.
As per you,
" Indeed Pakistan is like a bone which the rest of the world can neither swallow, throw-up nor flush out ",
It does offend me a lot, here is a simple way that how One Pure Pakistani can reply to this offending statement, " Indeed Pakistan is like a bone which the rest of the world can neither eat, throw away nor can break".
Kami,
Dear you do not have any idea what kind of people we are, if you are kind of mix nationality which I am sure you are (No Offence), Just a few glimps for you about who turst us and why they trust us:
•We are recognized by our hard work into more then 35 countries.
•We are recognized by our force and honesty into whole Arab and western countries.
•We are providing defense training to more than 15 countries in this world.
•Our forces are one of the toughest forces in this world.
•The Saudian kings pvt guards are us, we provide training to Defense Force of Qater, UAE, Srilanka, Malaysia , Taiwan, Sudan, Africa etc
•In Bahrain 45 % are in Police, Army and 20 % are pvt guard of Kings.
•In Qater 25 % are in Police, Army and 15% are pvt guard of Kings.
•Same in Oman, Saudia, Dubai and other Arab countries
Alhamdulillah we are Muslim and we believe that we have some problems at the moment which InshAllah will be resolved soon but its not mean we will remain like this all the time.
As per that Kassab Guy don’t you worry about him, he is not one of us nor I guess he is Indian but for sure one of those people who wants a war between these two countries and most probably he is one of those people who wants to disturb the peace of this region.
Remember twin towers went down in answer of that three countries bombarded and destabilized, who knows some one like them they want us to be destabilized.
We are strong one Nation like one family, we may have different views and thoughts but yep when the time come we can and will prove it.
http://www.islam-qa.com/en/tree
http://air16.blogspot.com/
@wkhang: Qurbaan teri saadgee pe.
First of all I am 100% percent born and bred Pakistani. I never doubt anybody’s patriotism and never allow anybody to doubt mine. However, it so happened that lately I have choosen to be deliberately blunt and incisive. That is because rightly or wrongly I feel that time for sugar coated commentary on the current state of affairs of my beloved country is over. This nation, especially its net surfing youth need a strong dose of "reality checks" that will force them to come out of the cocoons they were born in and discover the truth about themselves and their country.
Dear wkhang, when articulating various shining attributes of our nation you unfortunately, sounded like a sales representative for a security guard company with clients through out the middle east. Its a delima of a generation that they cant even re-call the contributions various Pakistani’s have made towards human development. Indeed we can be proud of:
1/ Dr. Abdus Salam (Noble Laureate)
2/ Akhter Hameed Khan (Introduced the concept of Micro financing, which became the foundation of Gramine Bank of Bangladesh)
3/ Dr. Saleem-uz-zamaan Siddidui (Ground breaking researcher in organic chemistry)
4/ Saifi Qureshi ( Founder of AST computers – one of the PC pioneers )
5/ Great Painters like Sadequain & Chughtai.
6/ Poets like Faiz, Faraz, Munir Niazi, Josh, Habib Jalib, Ahmed Nademm Qasmi etc.
7/ Singers like, Rashan Ara Begum, Noor Jehan, Mehdi Hasan, Reshman, Iqbal Bano, Inayat Hussain Bhatti, Pathanay Khan etc.
8/ Dancers like Naheed Siddiqui.
9/ TV pioneers like Aslam Azhar, Zia Mohyuddin, Shujaat Hashmee, Ishfaq Ahmed, Anwer Sajjaad and the lot.
And the list goes on ……..
Now dont you feel that we have some how stopped producing such personalities and if they are out there nobody is able to appreciate their talents. How come the name of Pakistan has become synonymous to terrorism. How come nobody knows that we can write books, do research, sing, dance and contribute to the human heritage.
My friend, nobody is to blame but us. We have forgotten that we are the custodian of 5000 years of heritage buried in the ruins of Moen-jo-Daro and Harrappa. The very word "India" derives its origins from Indus, the river that is the life line of this country.
So don’t you forget what you are and don’t try to become what you are not.
Qurban teray India ke terf dary per : /, Jany issue was Pakistan and India, your bend is towards India, thats why I came with that reply.
@wkhang
Just because kaami has the insight and guts to call a spade a spade doesn’t imply that we are Indian sympathisers. As I’ve alludded to in my previous posts, there are too many preconceived notions in our youth which cast a veil over our eyes. We need to dispel conspiracy theories and try to dig for the truth. It takes real courage to say what kaami said…
Sometimes truth hurts my friend. Bug the first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem.
Kaami, well done on another well thought out rebuttle. In my view, Pakistan’s handling of the whole situation has been drought with inconsistencies and political u-turns. We went from cooperation to war mongering back to playing peace keeper. The other party kept to it’s stance of pausing peace process unless Pakistan stops letting it’s land being usedfor attacks on innocent civilians in India. If I’m not mistaken, this doesn’t seem to be an unreasonable demand. Our leadership lacks the insight, vision and courage to come up with something as coherent as that. Regardless of whoever carried out the Mumbai attacks, there us sn urgent need to get our house in
order which means…
1. Govt to gain control of the whole of Pakistan
2. Army to report to Govt instead of the other way round
3. ISI’s plans and objectives need to more transparent I.e. Needs to be some accountability in front of parliament
4. An urgent need to kick off social, economic, political, education and religious reforms. Without this effort, we will keep finding ourselves in the desperate situation we are in now
Apologies for the mispellings in my previous post. It was written and posted via my phone.
One worth pointing out is…
Drought = Fraught
Thanks
Now that Pakistan has admitted that Kasab is their national, I wonder what the author of this board will comment.
Terrorism is the number 1 export of Pakistan to the world. Wake up and get real. The earlier you recognize this the better it is for you and the world.
@sanjai07: I really do not know what difference would this make to anything really. If Kasab is Pakistani, this means that Pakistani government is at fault? Attack Pakistan?
I request you to ask yourself, ‘who benefits from a terrorist-stricken Pakistan?’, ‘why would Pakistan, if they ‘export’ terrorists, let them lose on their on land?’ and you will see how absurd your accusation will sound to yourself.
God bless and peace
@momekh:
My accusation does not sound absurd. If it is true that attack was carried by Pakistans with training received on Pakistan soil, the Pakistan govt. should go all out to shut down this terror infrastrucure. It is of course the Pakistan govts fault that they are not doing ANYTHING to shut this terror infrastructure.
You guys look at it with tainted glasses, but the truth is terror is a Pakistani export. Sane Pakistanis understand that this will someday come come back to haunt them, but powers that be consider it a valid part of strategy.
BTW I never said war is an option. Please read the post carefully next time.
Peace be to all