Shiban Khaibri
Can it be reasonably speculated that India seems to have bailed out Pakistan and continued to do so on issues where we could have stood to our ground and exposed that country before the polity of nations? The moment it started surfacing that Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N was going to win maximum seats in the elections in Pakistan, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh lost no time in extending layers of greetings, good wishes and the like to him and as Nawaz Sharif put it “I had a call from him yesterday (May 12) – a long chat on the phone and then he extended an invitation to me….”. It apparently sounds the overzealousness of the UPA2 Government to forge very intimate friendship with that country. What has, however, been our experience so far with all types of dispensations of that country in this area, especially the hard work and walking many extra miles in that direction by Vajpayee Government is known to all? Why did Manmohan Singh go that fast in this direction when even counting of votes was underway in Pakistan and if something unexpected would have taken place as is wont with the type of things sprouting in political maneuverings, what an embarrassment would have been caused to Indian leadership? Dr. Singh had gone all fast prematurely in “India’s desire to work with you and your government to chart a new course and pursue a new destiny in the relations between our countries.” He went on in his letter;” I would also like to extend an invitation to you to visit India at a mutually convenient time.” It is beyond comprehension as to why so much of haste should the leader of the largest democracy of the world show towards Pakistan when even the counting of the votes had not been completed. This eagerness, this restlessness and this enthusiasm about building “new course and destiny” with that country from India which continues to bleed with the proxy war of terrorism from that country against us for the last three decades, is beyond comprehension. The victim cries for friendship, the victim is eager to talk to the perpetrator of 26/11, to pursue a new course with the architect of Kargil (mis)adventure , and with the source of umpteen instances of acts of barbarism and mayhem against our country.
Is there any unwritten secret pact or understanding that India was having with Pakistan to bail it out for all the acts of utter hostility and brazen unfriendliness against us? It is fairly well known the world over as to the nitty- gritty of terror manufacturing mechanism in that country , more so in the occupied part of Kashmir all planned against this country and where many misguided and misled youth of the valley seemingly now fatigued and sick of the Jihad and extreme fundamentalism , hate and violence “wanting to surrender and join the mainstream” following the realization of the utter futility of resorting to violence, are finding more than expected response from all liberal and soft Indian Government. As a result of “the changed mind set” and presumably some remorse in them, a rehabilitation policy was worked out in late 2010 envisaging their returning to India from designated and identified routes only. The return policy has started and nearly 300 of them are reported to have reached “home” but shockingly none of them from the mutually agreed identified route points. The entire nation could have through media, particularly from the electronic one, been watching as and when these “refined ones” in twos and fours, would have been crossing to this side from the Pakistan territory or from the Pak occupied parts of Kashmir. In that process, not only the country men but the entire world would have blasted the empty rhetoric of Pakistan that it had nothing to do with the terrorists, softly called as “militants” as and when they would have crossed over from the other side , ie; Pakistani territory including from the occupied part of the Jammu and Kashmir . How can any one insulate Pakistan from all the pros and cons of its blatant and naked involvement of abetting terror against this country, arming, and training, funding, indoctrinating the people especially the youth to the hilt, otherwise peace loving, exhibited by their surrendering and crossing to this side? All such people calling themselves as “surrendered militants” have arrived in this country from a new route, that of Nepal. It is not a solitary case but reportedly in all the cases where they do land here mostly with their “Pakistani wives and children born in Pakistan” from the Nepal route. How , where and who proves or certifies one as ex- “militant” and a “surrendered” one and where is such documentation made and under which authority? This is a clear cut indulgence of bailing out Pakistan and giving it a clean chit so to say, from India. This is a very serious matter, a very complicated and sensitive issue fraught with deleterious repercussions. UPA2 and the state government with Congress as its coalition partner, cannot as such play soft with the issue of terror only for the sake of ” new course and pursue a new destiny” and build “mutual trust and friendship” with that country and with an eye on the 2014 elections just to appease a section of the population. Sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the country cannot be bartered, cannot be negotiated, and cannot be commodified by any one in India.
This zest for indulgence in “regaining ” rather gaining somehow love lost with Pakistan by Dr. Manmohan Singh can be seen through the prism of what a startling revelation Sushil Kumar Shinde , the Union Home Minister made on May 5, 2013 in the internal security meet at New Delhi where all the state Chief Ministers were present. He said that Pakistan was “reviving terrorism in Panjab and other parts of the country, supporting and sustaining some youths with extremist mind set.” He said that in this connection some arms and ammunition too have been recovered.” Not only this, series of attacks, one after the other in some parts of valley have continuously been witnessed. Three infiltrators were killed in Nowgam on June 1 as Pakistani army kept on firing intermittently to push these terrorists into Kashmir. The incident of March 13, martyring five security personnel in Bemina Srinagar , followed by four army men killed in Tral on May24, yet again incidents in other parts of the valley intermittently, latest ones in Anantnag and Pulwama, cast a spell of suspicion , haze and ambiguity on the process of the manner of surrendering of “militants”. What is the process of monitoring and following up the matter to prevent any regrouping or reorganizing of the “surrendered” militants overtly or covertly to keep on the violence going?
There is no substitute, no alternative for any two immediate neighbours not to live like good friends and in mutual co-operation and India and Pakistan cannot be any exception but the friendship cannot be except on principles of sincere parity and equity and without any suspicion. The Nepal route gaining recognition in a disguised manner cannot be acceptable. The powers that be must come clean on this without any ado.
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