I am an Indian; the reader might be another fellow Indian or a neighbour from Pakistan. What I wish to talk here is about the ongoing conflicts between these two nations – a conflict that seems not to cease since the past 7 decades. Thus, it matters to the people both sides of the border. I will not ask who is guilty or claim who is guiltless. India is my country and Pakistan is my neighbour. The best way to live is peace – India has expressed the will to live like the elder brother of Pakistan under the rule of Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, from that side of the border, what we get is often a ‘backstab’. Why is it so? Why Pakistan cannot stand to its promises of peace?
There was a time in India under the rule of former PM Manmohan Singh when we used to say that the government is facing a ‘policy paralysis’. We used to question the existence of PM; we doubted whether he was the actual PM of the country of just a stooge in the hands of someone more powerful. About Pakistan, what can one say? This country, since the time it came to existence, is not only suffering policy paralysis but all the possible kinds of paralysis. The World is still wondering about the governance of this nation – who is ruling Pakistan? Is it the president; the prime minister; the ISI or the military? The more you try to explore the most complex it becomes. Amidst of the ever-going chaos, you cannot expect from a country to come clear in the terms of anti-terrorism combats and other bilateral promises.
I am not an expert on the Indo-Pak relations, neither a qualified person to speak about the foreign policies of Pakistan. However, with what I have seen and observed in so many years of my life, I find myself in a position to analyse the situation with my ‘personal’ sense of understanding. When the Kargil war started March 1999, I was 8 years old. I just knew a war is going on and felt excited after reading about that in the newspapers. I waited every night for the DD National news hour (8pm onwards) to know more about the war progress. At that time, I did not have that audacity to relate the war with the PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Pakistan in February 1999.
That was a historical visit during which the Lahore Treaty was signed. The major responsibility for both the neighbours was to avoid the war between them. The result – we all know. God only knows what propelled Pakistan to start the war just the next month and backstab India! Perhaps the military of the nation or ‘other forces’ pressurized the then Pak government to do such a heinous act.
Narendra Modi is the PM of unexpected moves. Defying all the notions within the country and showing his real courage – the 56 inch ka sina, he landed to have a cup of tea with the current Pak PM Nawaz Sharif. The 150-minute stopover of the courageous Indian PM and the welcoming Paki PM perhaps did not suit the narrative of those ‘forces’ in Pakistan. The result of the 25th December Christmas surprise came to India as the Pathankot airbase terror attack, handled by the militants of Jaish-e-Mohammed. This was the Pakistani gift to Indian PM’s surprise gift.
Many more are the examples that make Pakistan the culprit; but I know the internal conflicts in Pakistan sometimes take a dangerous pose than the outer conflicts. The chaotic governance; the shaky economy; the paranoia… Pakistan needs a strong push to wake itself up from the deep sleep. The terrorists who are boldly living in Pakistan, directly or indirectly, influence the foreign policy of the nation. And I have doubts until Pak does not come up strongly against the internal forces of destruction, India cannot (and possibly should not) believe the claims of peace and compromise.
