Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s rant on Kashmir and India’s abrogation of Article 370 included a reference to Nazism, Munich, Hitler and his ‘Final Solution.’ He dwelt on the possibility of war, conventional and nuclear. That an article of the Indian Constitution could release a speech so inchoate and irrational tells in own tale of murky inner demons on the loose. Indian Defence Minister Rajmath Singh issued a cautionary statement: India was committed to a ‘No first use of its nuclear weapons’ but this assurance was not cast in stone and could, if necessary, be adjusted to meet emerging ground realities. Imran Khan, his ministerial associates and assorted myrmidons, have as large a stake in self-preservation for themselves and their country as do the rest of humankind.
Khan’s promise to the legislature of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, that he was prepared to go to ends of the earth in defence of the Kashmiri peoples’ right to freedom would have gained traction if he had included the province of Balochistan, whose denizens endure the continuing depredations of the Pakistan military. Khan amnesia-struck brain cells could do with some gentle prodding to restore memory of his country’s abysmal record of human rights violations.
Religious tolerance has never been the forte of the Pakistani state that seemingly extends well into the future. Pakistan continues to be a land of blasphemy laws under which any Muslim citizen, man or woman of all ages and descriptions, has only to whisper, on a mere whim, that a Christian or Hindu neighbour, by word, deed or gesture, had defamed the Prophet of Islam and the Holy Koran, could be shredded by baying mobs, or if arrested by the police and tried by the courts, face the death penalty as has been the case down the years. Several years ago, a young Christian boy of 14 faced by the hangman’s noose, was rescued by extradition to Germany. A more recently, Christian peasant woman was on death row on the accusation her Muslim neighbour for blasphemy, before her acquittal by the Pakistan Supreme Court. Mobs incited by the clergy, were out in force in cities across the country, demanded that her death sentence be carried out. Offered asylum, she and her family migrated to Canada. The Hindu minority in Sindh has frequently complained that young women and children are abducted by Muslim landlords, converted and forcibly married to aged Muslim husbands. Muslim Ahmedis, widely perceived as apostates, are frequently murdered, their mosques attacked and often destroyed.
Then there was the terrible ordeal of Bengali-speaking, Muslim majority East Pakistan, which in the country’s first general election in January 1971 voted in the local Awami League by an overwhelming majority. Thereupon, the military government in Islamabad pronounced the result null and void and declared martial law. Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas, an eye-witness to the massacre of the minority Hindu population, with targeted killings of the Muslim intelligentsia, wrote a book (Rape of Bangladesh) detailing these hideous events. However, one must not get ahead of the events. A massive camp was constructed by the Pakistan Army to house Bengali Muslim peasant women for the sexual pleasure of Pakistani troops, the goal being the production of a new generation of Muslims uncontaminated by the Hindu cultural DNA.
Unable to take anymore of this carnage, Mascarenhas fled Dhaka; his Karachi-based family did likewise, all arriving in London, where his story appeared in the Sunday Times and went globally viral. The postscript was the subsequent India-Pakistan war of December 1971, which ended in a Pakistani rout and the emergence of a sovereign, Bangladesh, once East Pakistan.
Imran Khan and the Pakistan political class are busy disgorging tales of Indian cluster bombs raining down on the hapless Kashmiri people. Pakistan’s words lack credibility. Claiming to fight terrorism and providing Osama bin Laden covert refuge was unwise. The Great Powers - with the exception of China, which gifted Pakistan a readymade nuclear bomb and nuclear weapon technology - have advised Islamabad start a dialogue with New Delhi, fully aware that Pakistan had severed diplomatic and trade ties with India. A well understood dialogue of the deaf, no doubt.
Two faces of the Middle Kingdom
China historically has been a puzzle to outsiders. Language and script, to some extent, may have been the reasons Equally, foreign countries and cultures – though, not in equal measure - have been, and still are, for the most part, a mystery to the Han Chinese – the indigenous people of the country called China. Chinese civilization is among the world’s oldest; for many centuries it was the most productive technologically. A trained civil bureaucracy was also a Chinese creation. This lifespan ended around the beginning of the 15th century. Cut off from other great civilizations by the formidable natural barriers of desert, ocean and steppe land, the China’s Confusion world order was uniquely an internal mechanism based on home-grown Confucian principles of stability, filial piety and unquestioning obedience to the dictates Son of Heaven – the Emperor. – all this and more crystallizing the belief of an inherent a cultural superiority embodies in the concept of Middle Kingdom,
However, invaders from across the steppe – Mongols and Manchus – conquered the country and were resented by the the Hans. But Mongol and Manchu territorial acquisitions were happily accepted as an imperial heritage woven into the national narrative as sacrosanct and brooking no denial at home or abroad. The colonisation of Muslim-populated Xinjiand and Buddhist Tibet come readily to mind. Old inbred attitudes die hard. Foreign ‘barbarians’ from across the seas and lands beyond breached the walls of Chinese isolation and conceit. Peripheral states were tributaries, whose rulers kowtowed to the Emperor as was the custom. Intruders from the West were treated initially with bland disdain, until the walls of isolation were rudely breached by gun boat diplomacy. An increasingly moribund state was vanquished by smaller foreign powers empowered by the Industrial Revolution and its science and technologies.
Coming to the post-war era, China carried some of its autistic political baggage into present day realities.. The West and Russia were much too powerful to subdue, but Asian countries in China’s neighbourhood, including India, were considered fair game. At one level Chinese diplomacy is suave and courteous. At another, it it is loud, crude and menacing. The Global Times, mouthpiece of the Beijing establishment, recently launched an anti-Indian tirade, deeming the country unfit for UN Security Council membership, of being regional bully - with Pakistan, China’s all-weather friend, clearly in mind in mind – hobbled by an allegedly stagnant economy - a psychological ploy to cower India into submission. Thus ielding the big stick and talking softly at Wuhan and Varanasi summits are staples of Chinese statecraft. Edward Luttwak, the noted US political thinker, in his seminal work, China’s Rise versus the Logic of Strategy, cites instances of China’s maladroit conduct. An Indian delegation to China included a member from Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims is Chinese territory and hence his visa application would be stapled, not stamped on his passport. Refusing to budge, India cancelled the visit.
China’s aggrandisement in the South China Sea has so alienated Vietnam that it has opted for a close strategic partnership with India. Both countries have have fought border wars with a China determined to teach them a lesson. In thesummer of 2017, India faced off China at Doklan on the Tibet-Bhutan border. It was India’s coming of age as a hard state to be respected.
UAVs instrument of security in Kashmir
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been pressed cinto service by India as protective devices agaist jihadi terrorist threats in Kashmir. Sensitive areas in Jammu were on high alert by security forces watchful for hostile Pakistani military activity in close proximity to the Line-of-Control. Pakistan forces were shelling the area, as cover for jihadi infiltrators. Meanwhile Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi took serious exception to the statement of Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement that India’s ‘No first use’ of nuclear weapons was not an open cheque for all conditions. There would be modifications to this assurance as circumstances warranted. Mr Qureshi accused India of ‘irresponsible’ and ‘belligerent’ behaviour. The war of words looks set to continue. Jaw jaw is better than war war, as Winston Churchill famously remarked decades ago.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson regrets violence on Indians in London
The Indian Independence Day violence outside the High Commission of India has raised many concerns. Indians like every year were gathered at the High Commission of India with women and children to celebrate India's 73rd Independence Day. The celebrations started with a flag-hoisting ceremony, with the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Mrs Ruchi Ghanashyam, felicitating members of the World Peace Rally, which concluded in London this week after covering 105 cities and a distance of 17,000-km.
Mrs Ghanashyam also greeted the Indian Cricket Association for the Physically Challenged team, which recently beat England to win the Physical Disability World Cricket Series 2019 at Worcester in the West Midlands region of England. There were cultural programmes, which concluded around 11am and the crowd started skowly dispersing. At that point there were only a few Indian supporters outside and a few protestors.
By mid day there were several of buses that arrived with demonstrators from areas dominated by Pakistani diaspora in Midlands and the North. What followed was shameful. Khalistani, Azad Kashmir and Pakistan supporters were perhaps rightfully there to stand up for their country or choices made. But what they did in the name of humanity was beyond comprehension. Bottles, stones, vegetables, eggs were thrown at innocent supporters including children and women, who were there for celebrating something entirely non-political in nature.
The questions for authorities here are many. First, the police were informed about the event, but they were not prepared adequately. With the government's cut on number of police, events like this where their help is crucial gets hugely affected. More as the Met Police convincingly said afterwards, that the event was largely peaceful!
Sadiq Khan has been questioned for not being earnest about his intentions, and alleged to have been partial towards his own community. None of the Indian-origin politicians have come out in support- which is shocking. But besides every issue what remains most concering is that Indians don't feel safe any more in a diverse city like London, where the Deputy Mayor is also of Indian-origin.
The Indian government demanded UK authorities to take action against this trend of India bashing especially as the UK Prime Minister hopes for a close UK-India relationship post-Brexit. Authorities regretably keeps the line as a “peaceful protest” held outside India House.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his phone call with all the world leaders, spoke to Indian Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday afternoon. Downing Street in a statement said, the two leaders agreed on the importance of the UK-India partnership and the need to build on it further, particularly through trade and economic ties and through the living bridge that links our countries. Prime Minister Modi said there are immense possibilities for the UK and India which would increase prosperity in both countries.
However alongside Johnson and Modi discussed the current situation in Kashmir and the UK Prime Minister emphasised that UK views the issue of Kashmir as one for India and Pakistan to resolve bilaterally, and underlined the importance of resolving it through dialogue.
The PMO in a statement mentioned that Prime Minister Modi also drew attention to the challenges posed by vested interests pursuing their motivated agenda, including by violent means. In this context he referred to the violence and vandalism perpetrated by a large mob against the High Commission of India in London on the last Independence Day of India. Prime Minister Johnson regretted the incident and assured that all necessary steps would be taken to ensure safety and security of the High Commission, its personnel and visitors.
Long-live UK-India partnership!
