Muhammad Usman
THE death of one thousand capable people does not harm that much as one idiot could cause assuming power. This is what has happened with India at the hands of Modi. No, possibly more because he is an idiot plus, completely absorbed with bigotry, arrogance and rancour. He is a foot soldier of RSS whose ideology is Hindu supremacism. The tag of butcher was already attached to his collars when he entered power corridors at the Centre for massacre of Muslims in Gujrat as Chief Minister. Now it was turn of India to suffer multifariously by his morbid thought/approach. On top of him, his ideological and political parties, RSS and BJP are hell bent to administer an overdose to an India whose foundations of philosophy and might are synthetic, fragile and blown out of proportions.
This has advanced clock for Indian disintegration/fall. A glance through recent spate of woes/humiliation which India has suffered, tells the tale. India has moved fast from rhetorically built image of shining India to real ugly India. The secularism is banishing from landmass of India. Albeit, it was artificial yet somehow it managed to keep India together. The tyranny of Hindu majority is planting its feet firmly and minorities are increasingly finding it difficult to fashion their lives in accordance with their own creed. Hindustan is for Hindus only. Previously it was a little covert, now it is overt. The goons of RSS and BJP, armed with authority of legislation/administrative fiat also, are resorting to every mischief to subdue minorities. The Citizens Amendment Act, an anti-Muslim law is one of the latest illustration of this kind. India always harboured hegemony in the region and presented itself a counterweight to China. For sake of posturing, it tried to flex its military muscle at Ladakh but found itself overrun at once by Chinese with humiliation writ large. India had to sneak back into shell with a little bit of grumbling.
A few month earlier, it was Pakistan which rubbed its nose into dust when it vainly attempted to strike Balakot by air. Both events are considered enough for interested powers to realize that India is not a right bet to serve their interests. Something similar happened in Aafghanistan where Pakistan continues to hold importance despite strategic bidding of India by the US. In brief, India has been reduced to size and for interested powers, it is no more an automatic choice. Along with political and military potential, economic potential of India is also in danger of massive contraction due to trade rivalries with China, demonetization, and colossal mismanagement of coronavirus pandemic. India ranks very high among worst performing countries against pandemic. As a result, its economy is also worst hit. ADB predicts that Indian GDP will shrink by 9% in current FY and its fallouts could keep already stumbling Indian economy in tail spin for long time thus, shattering its pipe dream of becoming an economic giant in the world. India is also faced with serious danger of indigenous uprisings. One is ongoing in the IoK since three decades.
Now it has assumed even a sharper edge due to Indian atrocities in the wake of dismantling of 370 and 35-A Articles of its Constitution related to it. In the past, India also had a potent uprising in Punjab, known as Khalistan Movement, seeking homeland for the Sikhs. Though India was able to quell the uprising however, military operation and massacre of Sikhs following assassination of Indra Ghandi by her Sikh guards, caused serious wounds which never healed. Its reflection could be seen during current farmer’s protest led by Sikh farmers spiritedly. Another worrying aspect of Indian polity is its state institutions which have fallen in lap of Hindu majority. This includes judiciary, EC, investigative agencies, media and parliament, dominated by Hindus. The state institutions are warp and weft of a country which hold it together. This would have serious consequences for Indian integration. The sum and substance of all above is that all these trouble are self-inflicted and world has started taking notice of it with concern because implications arising out of ominous situation in India also goes far beyond its confines. Both aspects provide opportunity for Pakistan to achieve equilibrium with India and make world further aware about Indian misleading vocabulary and right of self-determination for people of Kashmir in accordance with UNSC resolutions.
This is no fishing in trouble waters. It is sanctioned by dictates of realpolitik. There is only two ways of balancing equation with your enemy. Either raise your strength or strength of your enemy gets eroded. India is our archenemy and its strength is eroding owing to its own blundering mindset and approach. India is four time larger than Pakistan in area, seven time in population and ten time in GDP. Last one is alarming, being too disproportionate. This needs to be narrowed down appropriately. There is an opportunity and we must not fritter it away. Pakistan has refrained from expressing its concern about use of force by India against farmer’s protest. Pakistan ought not to be apologetic about it because exposing Indian cacophony of secularism, democracy and posturing is in interests of the world and region. The protest does not involve only economic dimension. This also involves elements of dissent, identity and democracy. The statement of Canadian PM may provide some useful insight in this regard. While speaking to Indian community in Canada, he said that he was concerned about farmers, most of them from Sikh-dominated State of Punjab, camped out on the outskirts of Delhi in a protest against farm reforms.
— The writer, a retired Lt Col, is freelance columnist based in Islamabad.
