Bhopinder Singh
The race to establish their respective versions of the Kashmir narrative, is an age old Indo-Pak commentary. The recent neutralizing of the Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani by the Indian Army, gave Islamabad the excuse to indulge in its favourite distraction from its own imploding reality. Even by Pakistani standards, the urgency and intensity of the India-baiting phraseology and timing was extreme – the pallbearers of doom were led by the Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif himself, and in a uniquely Pakistani way, even the Pakistani Army Chief General Raheel Sharif felt it necessary to comment on matters pertaining to a foreign country.
The Indian High Commissioner, Gautam Bambawale was summoned to the Foreign Office and a protest lodged over the incidents in the valley and other “human rights abuses” by Indian security forces. If that wasn’t enough pyrotechnics – the envoys of the, Permanent Five (P5) members of the UN Security Council were asked to take note of the “Indian atrocities” in the valley. Basically, the line sought by the Pakistanis was to deny Kashmir as a local issue of India and ratchet up the incident to draw-in, international intervention. All this while, a parallel counter-accusation was unleashed by the Indian authorities to describe,”Pakistan’s continued attachment to terrorism and its usage as an instrument of state policy”. Both nations relayed their respective positions to pitch for international averment to their respective outlooks.
Barring Pakistan, no other country reacted to the Pakistani efforts and line – on the contrary, the State Department Spokesperson for Pakistan’s ally, the United States of America, stated clearly that the US had not spoken to India on the matter as it was an internal matter of India.
The recent global backdrop of the extreme incidents of violence and terror attacks is testing the ‘qualifying’ approach towards terrorism, per se. From the backlash against the ‘qualifying’ language of a televangelist like Zakir Naik in inspiring impressionable young terrorists in a café in Bangladesh, the rote ‘qualifying’ semantics against the West in justifying incidents like the shocking mowing down of over 80 bystanders in Nice, to the sectarian ‘qualifying’ logic against the bloody bomb blasts in the Shia enclaves in Baghdad – the justifications and ‘qualifying’ support for any terror attack, tacit or overt, is testing the patience of the global order.
Internal posturing aside, Pakistan now finds itself increasingly isolated (barring China, which for geopolitical considerations has no qualms of joining hands with belligerent and questionable establishments in countries like North Korea, Pakistan and earlier, with the junta-ruled Myanmar, when it was afforded a pariah status, internationally).
Recently, Recently, the US House Sub-committees on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade in Asia and the Pacific convened on determining the means of dealing with Pakistan – apparently to get apprised of Pakistan’s murky relationship with terror groups and apparatus. Congressman Matt Salmon, who leads the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific noted sternly, “The United States has spent tens of billions of taxpayer dollars in aid to Pakistan since 9/11. Now, 15 years later, Pakistan’s military and intel services are still linked to terrorist organisations and little success has been made to stabilise the region”. Aptly the subcommittee hearing was titled “Pakistan: Friend or Foe in the fight against Terrorism”. With no credible and demonstrated action initiated against the ostensible “Strategic Assets” in the form of India-centric terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Jaish-e-Mohammad or against the Afghan-centric Haqqani Network or the Afghan Taliban – the perceptions of the consistent duplicity or the application of ‘qualifying’ filters in deciding who qualifies as a terrorist and who doesn’t, is a patented Pakistani practice. The Pakistani defense of continually reiterating the “price” that Pakistan has paid in its tryst against the jihadi (Frankenstein) unleashed on its soil and showcasing the selective and restrictive mandate of operations like the Zarb-e-Azb has diminishing returns and takers, in the international capitals.
Expectedly, the Pakistanis have reacted furiously at what they see as yet another move of the stitching-up and convergence of the strategic, Indo-US relationship. The US congressional panel’s suggestions of cutting off all support to Pakistan and further threats to declare it a state sponsor of terrorism and imposing sanctions, have been as blatant and damaging indictment of the Pakistani establishment, as possible, given the compulsions of maintaining a semblance of ‘ally’ status, given the stakes involved in neighbouring Afghanistan – the physical route to which is essentially, via the Pakistani hinterland.
Fact is, all diplomatic and engagement measures to get Pakistan to change its hawkish and strident stand on Afghanistan and India has come a cropper – hence the oscillatory texture of the US relationship with the Pakistani establishment. Pakistan’s insincerity on clamping down the terror infrastructure has riled not just India, but has also lost them their initial backer, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who gave the Pakistanis the long rope, initially – only to retract subsequently and join the chorus of blaming Pakistan for their ‘qualifying’approach towards terrorism in the region.
While there are no direct stakes for other Western powers like UK, France, Germany etc. – however, given that terrorism has reached their doorsteps and is raring its bloody head in these lands, it will be very difficult for Pakistan to sell their traditional narrative and ‘qualifying’ criteria with much aplomb, in most capitals of the world. Even Russia and China are dealing with Islamic terror organisations and beyond a geopolitical point, it would be extremely difficult for any nation to support such ambivalence. Globally, a certain plain-speak on terror handling is being done and a recalibration of perceptions and relationships are afoot. Beyond the “all-weather” friendship of Beijing with Islamabad, global efforts are directed at rooting out terrorism from its roots, sanctuaries and nurseries.
As of now, Pakistan is crying wolf and playing appalled at the turn of events – the ire and angst is going in all directions with the Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani stating, “Their conspicuous silence on the killings of unarmed civilians in Kashmir, the treatment being meted out to African-American in their own country and the effort to impose India on the NSG in violation of all norms of nuclear non-proliferation reflect this” – clearly, Pakistan remains unmoved to the changed world.
(The writer a retired Lieutenant General of the Indian Army, was Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)
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