ISLAMABAD – Other than the ultra-right nationalistic tendencies and partiessweeping across many continents, there is another, perhaps somewhatunnoticed, wave sweeping across nations around the world; one of endingwars and animosities and achieving peace. Donald Trump incessantly made thecase for peace with Russia even before becoming the President of the UnitedStates. Russia has never been a country talked about favourably by anyAmerican president even after the end of the Cold War. Trump alsorepeatedly announced that on his watch, America’s longest war would come toan end. To that end, US Special Representative for AfghanistanReconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad was in Islamabad just weeks ago to seekPakistan’s assistance in negotiating an end to the war in Afghanistan.
After insulting Pakistan on Fox News claiming that “they don’t do a damnthing for us” and then doubling down in subsequent tweets, Trump sent aletter to Imran Khan seeking help in getting out of the Afghanistanquagmire. The letter seemed to have written by more experienced hands atthe White House. Nevertheless, it shows Trump’s commitment to ending thewar. A fact often unnoticed and unmentioned, may be due to Trump’shyperbolic personality and his melodramatic tweets, is that Trump despitehis lunacy driven and hatred laden rhetoric has not started a war, at leastnot yet. That is a vivid departure from American presidential tradition, ifyou will.
Imran Khan similarly, before being elected and even now as the PrimeMinister of Pakistan, has repeatedly called for achieving peace with India,Pakistan’s arch-enemy. While the nationalist tide has swept across India aswell, no urge for peace has come to greet it. Prime Minister Imran Khan,one could argue, has acted unprecedentedly by making peace overtures toIndia, which has come up with laughable excuses. Indian External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj said, “terror and talks cannot go together.”
When a seller isn’t very interested in selling his or her product, he orshe demands some ridiculous price to either discourage the buyer or sell itfor, who knows, the ridiculous price. So, the excuse of “terror and talkscannot go together”, Miss Sushma Swaraj say it to the Americans who swappedBowe Bergdahl with the Taliban and or the when they facilitated the openingup of a Taliban office in Doha, or when the Americans and Soviets swappedwith each other the spies Rudolph Abel Ivanovich and Francis Gary Powers atthe height of the Cold War. In all these instances and many not mentionedhere, the hostilities were ongoing while these difficult exchanges weremade. All that is needed is a will, which is absent not just in New Delhibut in India at large.
Persistence peace overtures by Imran Khan prompted Indian army chief BipinRawat to demand that Pakistan become a secular state if it wants peace withIndia. That is the most mind boggling demand. Let me ascertain that Jinnahhad envisioned a secular state in Pakistan. Nevertheless, even superpowerstates do not ask other countries to go secular as a precondition forachieving peace, let alone a hungry, naked, extremist, andrape-and-caste-infested nation like India. The United States doesn’t askSaudi Arabia to become secular for there to be peace between the twocountries. Israel, India’s ally, is neither a secular state nor did Indiademand it to be.
More importantly, is India itself a secular state? There are endlessstories of abuse and discrimination against Muslims, Sikhs, and low casteHindus. There was a New York Times story titled ‘Tell Everyone We ScalpedYou!’ How Caste Still Rules in India. In late October, a 14 year old Dalitgirl was beheaded by an upper-caste man. Dalit men aren’t allowed to ridehorses. In March, one Dalit man broke with the tradition and rode one,causing higher caste men to kill him. Avatthi Ramaiah, a Sociologyprofessor in Mumbai said, “You may talk about India being a world power, aglobal power, sending satellites into space but the outside world has animage of India they don’t know. As long as Hinduism is strong, caste willbe strong, and as long as there is caste, there will be lower caste.”
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The sophisticated propaganda machine has always had us think that it is thePakistan army generals that do not want peace with India for theirnefarious causes. Nothing can be further from the truth. And the currentrude rejection by India of the peace overtures from Pakistan is acontinuation of India’s decades old belligerent mindset.
Imran Khan’s belief that India is rejecting his peace offer because of theupcoming elections in India is wishful thinking. The fact that Indianleadership needs anti-Pakistan credentials for winning the election speaksvolumes about how futile these peace overtures would prove to be even afterthe election. Imran Khan himself said that the BJP has an “anti-Muslim,anti-Pakistan approach.” I want to warn here that the problem is not merelywith the BJP but rather more with the constituency of BJP, which happens tobe the majority of the Indian population. It is not just the BJP, it isthis anti-Pakistan mindset that wouldn’t just disappear even if a differentparty is voted to power.
People question how Trump won the election despite his racist andanti-immigrant hostile talk. He didn’t win despite his ugly rhetoric butactually because of it. This is about the constituency not the individualleader or a party. A change of government would merely mean the majority ofthe Indians putting their trust in another party and another leader toachieve no different goals. The Indian media consistently drills ananti-Pakistan propaganda into the minds of the Indian people. They wouldn’twake up the morning after the election with deep love for Pakistan. ImranKhan should smell the coffee.
By: Imran Jan
