Dealing with Indian War Hysteria

Columnist SYMA NASIR analyses the build up of war psyche among the Indian masses.

India once again brought South Asia on the verge of war and has started beating drums that they are going to wage war against Pakistan. Such statements have been issued from top to bottom hierarchy of Indian government during the past few days and have been issued repeatedly. The Indian Prime Minister uttered most open of such statements during his visit to occupied Kashmir wherein he declared that war is the only and last solution of the problem. Then these are not mere statements as India has moved her forces along with Pakistani borders and has moved in their naval forces and has put air force on a high alert as well. The so-called allegation behind this move of India is that it is in response to cross border terrorism allegedly carried out by Pakistan. So far response from our side is that in the first place Pakistan is not involved in any kind of cross border terrorism and that we are not helping and sponsoring any such groups supposed to be carrying out such activities.  Pakistan’s point is that we ourselves are victim of terrorist activities especially after becoming an important part of the alliance fighting against terrorism and that war is no solution and has advised India to show restraint. But at the same time it has been made very clear that if war is imposed then we are very much capable of not only defending ourselves but of striking back as well.

The point that must be accorded top priority here is that why India is behaving in that way again and again. The similar exercise was carried out by India in December last year after staging a drama of terrorist attack on Indian parliament and putting all the blame as usual on Pakistan. Now a similar drama of terrorist attack that happened in Jammu has been taken as the ground of waging war. Few things in this regard are very simple. In the wake of September 11 incident, Pakistan appeared as a country which is totally against terrorism and played a very important role as a member of coalition that was formed to fight terrorism. Due to this role, respect of Pakistan among international community enhanced very much and misgivings regarding Pakistan being a state that sponsors terrorist and extremist groups was cleared upto a large extent. All this is due to the practical steps that were taken by Pakistan to fight international terrorism and against groups present in Pakistan and were involved in such activities. All these efforts were appreciated internationally and Pakistan emerged as an efficient partner to fight against terrorism. This was obviously not acceptable to India who from the very first day has painted Pakistan as country abetting and helping the terrorist groups and terrorist activities. In the past, India has made all her efforts to get Pakistan declared as a terrorist state and a time came where this was going to happen but by the grace of God, the same was avoided. Indian propaganda to declare Pakistan a terrorist state was simply aimed to divert the attention of international community from the core issue of Kashmir and the atrocities carried out there by the Indian forces for the last two decades against innocent Kashmiris who are fighting for their independence. To play down the role played by Pakistan in fight against terrorism India staged a state sponsored drama of attack on Indian parliament and started crying that it will wage war in December last year. Even before this event, a failed effort of hijacking of Indian plane was made and Pakistan was declared responsible for that and after realizing that drama did not work in planned way it was closed in an absurd manner. India failed to learn a lesson from these failed dramas that she is only making mockery of herself by doing such ridiculous things. Going back to December when India started war hysteria, as mentioned above Pakistan’s image of being a front line country in war against terrorism was not acceptable to India and was altogether different from the picture that India was presenting before international community of Pakistan hence she tried once again to present Pakistan as a country encouraging terrorism and declared that she will start a war. Side by side with this, India started saying that if America can wage a war to end terrorism, India can also do so. In fact behind this cover India wanted to change the situation in Kashmir and wanted to justify its illegal occupation of the Kashmir. Perhaps they were of the view that by making such a move and by creating war hysteria in the region they will be able to divert the attention of international community from the actual dispute of Kashmir and in the wake of war against terrorism will achieve their objective. Then by playing a role of frontline state in war against terrorism, Pakistan gained certain economical advantages, which was not in favour of India as she has always tried to weaken Pakistan economically. By creating war hysteria in December India succeeded in effecting Pakistan’s economy in a negative way as the latter suffered in terms of cancellation of export orders and war-like situation played its role in giving abroad message of uncertainty present here. At that time it were the interests of the world powers that they put pressure on India to cool down the situation. Though, since then India did not call back its forces from borders and did not pay much attention to international pressure but stopped issuing statements that she is going to wage war. 

In the present scenario, if seen logically the objectives of India in creating war-like situation is again the same. She once again wants to create the impression abroad that Pakistan is a country helping terrorist activities and that Pakistan has not fulfilled the commitment of taking action against terrorist groups operating from Pakistan and allegedly sponsored by Pakistan. In this regard they give specific reference to the speech made by General Pervez Musharraf on 12 January 2002, wherein it was declared by the President that Pakistan will not allow any such group or people to operate from Pakistan. They say that these words of President are not followed by concrete actions. Then internally, it was to the benefit of India to create such war-like situation due to the fact that Vajpai government was facing too many problems internally on the Gujarat issue where hundreds of thousands of Muslims’ were butchered by fanatic Hindus. Not only the internal political problems but also the international pressure on Muslims’ massacre was another irritant for the Indian government. An easy way out of the situation, for India, was to create such a situation in the region that could divert the international attention as well as could end the political turmoil present in the country. War hysteria, created by India has fulfilled both of these purposes very well. Then Pakistan’s economy after years of depression was showing some signs of recovery as foreign deposits touched a record level and in spite of the fact that after September 11 there was a slump in world economy, Pakistans’ exports flow was satisfactory and stock markets were doing well and foreign investors were showing some interest. We can say that on all fronts economy was performing well and positive attitude of international financial institutions, which was a result of our role-played in war against terrorism helped in this regard as well. Now, the present war-like situation created by India will have serious consequences on the working of our economy and the immediate results of the same were seen in the drastic lowering of index points of Pakistani stock exchanges.

So apparently it appears that India has started present war hysteria to divert the attention of international community from the massive killings of Muslims in Gujarat province and to attain political unity within the country as well as to carry out its actions for the suppression of Kashmir freedom movement and as far as the achievements of these objectives is concerned more or less they have been successful. Apart from it, other objectives could be that Pakistan already facing a political crisis within the country and to add fuel to the situation India would have thought that this is the best time.   But things are not that simple. It appears that there are other hidden objectives behind this move and this move is another one in the series of efforts carried out by India since September 11, 2002. As discussed in the beginning, after September 11 incidents, Pakistan played the role of frontline state against terrorism and within the country cracked down on the extremist parties and elements and banned certain organizations as well. All these steps cleared the image of Pakistan internationally upto large extent and we appeared as a country which is totally against terrorism of any kind and pledged that we will fight terrorism by all means. During this period India beat drums loudly that a country which herself is a terrorist is fighting against terrorism. At that time no heed was given to this Indian propaganda perhaps due to the fact that Pakistan was geographically important to the west for war in Afghanistan. Seeing at the situation, India staged the drama of attack on their parliament and started taking actions as she is going to start a war. Basic objective was to portray Pakistan as a country helping terrorism. At that time the international community put some pressure on us and the result was the speech of 12th January wherein it was declared by our president that Pakistan would take all the measures required to curb elements that are using Pakistan to plan and carry out terrorist activities. This was taken very positively internationally. Now India, in continuation of her efforts again staged the drama of attack in Jammu and started saying that Pakistan has not acted in evading the elements that carry out such activities. Rather they are saying that these activities are sponsored by Pakistan. Situation is more or less the same but what is different in present case is the attitude of world powers. Almost all the world powers are pressurizing Pakistan to stop cross border terrorism. America has said this thing repeatedly. Recently British Foreign Minister during his visit to Pakistan said the same thing that Pakistan should take concrete steps to stop terrorism in occupied Kashmir. It appears that in this regard we have lost the war of convincing international community that Pakistan is not behind such incidents and has failed to bring to surface the fact that it is the indigenous reaction to the illegal occupation of India and is a response to the atrocities perpetuated on innocent citizens by Indian forces there.

Now, the question comes how we should deal with the situation?   Though, for the time being it appears that danger of immediate war is no more there but we cannot rely or trust India in this regard. What is required is that we should immediately adopt a three-pronged policy, one, on the diplomatic front, and two, for our security, and three, for achieving internal unity on the issue. On the diplomatic front we will have to act in a super effective and efficient   manner to convince the international community that in the first place we are not sponsoring any type of terrorist activities in occupied Kashmir or India and are totally against terrorism. Here a word of caution, our president on many occasions has declared very loudly and is doing the same now that we are not helping or planning any cross border terrorist activities    and making all efforts to curb check such elements / groups operating from Pakistan and we must stand to our words. In this regard, we are under intense pressure internationally that we are only declaring and our words are not being followed by concrete actions. Hence, we must put all our efforts to ensure that no such groups are operating through Pakistan and appropriate action must be taken to achieve this end, so that we can tell international community that we are doing what we have said. Secondly, all the efforts should be made diplomatically to get the international community realize the fact that unless Kashmir Dispute is solved justly, tension will remain there in the region. Fact of the matter is that Indian forces are putting unprecedented atrocities on innocent Kashmiris for the last two decades and the resistance in the form of terrorist activities is largely  indigenous. Then efforts must be made to tell international community in an explicit manner that they should realize the difference between terrorism and freedom movement. Only after realizing this difference they will be able to realize the actual situation and nature of the Kashmir dispute and then they will have to play their role in the solution of this outstanding dispute on which three wars have already been fought and the danger of the fourth one is present there. It is pertinent to state that till today India has always said that Kashmir issue is bilateral issue and only be discussed bilaterally. They have defied all offers of international mediation, arbitration on the issue offered by various countries from time to time. Same attitude of India was witnessed in the recent offer of Russian president. Pakistan has warmly welcomed the offer of Russian President regarding facilitating a meeting of India and Pakistan on the issue in Kazakhstan.  The response of India, which was that a meeting of Vajpayee with General Pervez Musharraf is not possible, shows that it wants to   defy international efforts aimed at resolving the dispute. Then this offer of Russian President which was made during American President’s visit to Russia, has once again brought to surface the fact that unless international element is present there this issue will not be solved. It is 50 years now that India is insisting that they will not accept a third party and will solve the issue bilaterally but nothing has been reached upon.

The second aspect of the policy that required to be given due consideration is regarding our security. In this regard Government should take all the steps to ensure the security and sovereignty of the country and required for our defence. As discussed above we cannot trust India. We must keep up our preparations in this regard. Missiles’ experiments carried out recently, was a very right step, as it has given a message to India that we are capable of responding to any threat. We must keep up our preparations and must be ready for the worst. Government should make it clear to International community especially the world powers that they should not criticize us for missile tests and other perpetrations and steps taken by our government to deal with any aggression from India as whatever is done to make our defences more strong. We are not for war, we will not start it, and we are open to discuss all issues with India anywhere and on any occasion. But if war is forced upon us, we will respond in equal manner and are capable of dealing with any such venture. The third element of the strategy to deal with Indian threat is to obtain unity within the country. In this regard, President of Pakistan has already invited all political parties for discussing the difficult situation Pakistan is faced with. This invitation was extended to all the political parties but to the dismay and disappointment of many some of the leaders / parties related their availability / participation with some conditionality. They must realize   that it is not the time of such behaviour and they should              act with political sagacity so that internal unity can be achieved which is the foremost requirement to deal with a situation we are faced with today. Government on its part has already started efforts to achieve this end and has declared that it will again invite the political parties that were not present in the previous   discussion. It is hoped that this time, in the greater interest of the country these political parties will join hands with the government and not only this will put efforts to convey to the masses of the country using their platform that we are in a critical moment and internal unity is the top most requirement to get out of this moment successfully.