[Reader-list] Is peace and reconciliation an illusion?

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Yusuf,

Thank you for posting your response to Kumkum Chadha's HT article.

After reading Kumkum's wonderfully written piece and you apt response it
seems the choice is really between either going to war or abstaining from
it.

I can understand the frustration in Kumkum's point of view and I want to
empathize with it. So for the sake of empathy let me for a moment imagine
what will happen if India attacks Pakistan.

I present two scenarios.

Scenario-1

They Nuke us and we Nuke them. The Knickerwallahs here and the Salwar
brigade there will have a field day carrying the dead and disposing at least
30-40 Million bodies. After all this is what they are all about, aren't
they- to care and offer social service to the society.

Then I think  US will intervene and there will be a hue and cry in the UN
and 'War' will come to an end. Then perhaps we can also celebrate, like
Japan does every august, a peace day.

Scenario-2

This war is a conventional war. You know water, ground, air  offensive. With
no first use policy on Nuke.

So we watch TV all day as Barkha hyperventilates  from the top of a tank and
Sagarika screems EXCLUSIVE every five minutes from her Noida studio  and
Arnab adjusts his glasses and Ashutosh strikes a pose and we are deluged
with stories about how good our Jawans are feeling even as they lay their
lives for Bharat Mata, and what  is the 'SITUATION'  'RIGHT NOW' !!

And after a six month long conflict we finally manage to capture these
bloody Pakis.

Then what? What will we do with them? Make an entire country POW. Rape their
women? Kill their Children? Murder them? Do what? What will we do with these
Millions of illiterate, poor, Muslims?  Administer them under some sort of a
suzerainty?

How will we tackle those stubborn Baluchs or those arrogant Sindhis or those
drunk on power Punjabis? Those mad Pushtus? Even the US is finding them a
hard nut to crack after all these years. What will we do?

No no no no no.......we should not let so much of negativity afflict our
thinking. Even if it is shit we should go ahead and embrace it, you know why
maybe because it is our shit or maybe because one man's shit is another
man's manure. So we don't know, hence we have to think of other ways to deal
with them.

how about making these mad mad pakis, who drunk on power, drunk on religion-
Indian citizens, after we win the war ofcourse, which is just a formality,
ofcourse?

May be that's a good idea!! and we can finally solve the root problem of all
the conflicts in South Asia. You know what  Yousf may be  Kumkum is right
after all and may be you are wrong, because what she is saying  is what our
great leaders and thinkers and critical intellectuals have said years ago.

Consider for instance,calming thoughts of one of the greatest intellectuals
that India has ever produced, Mr. K.M.Munshi. In 1965 almost FORTY FOUR
years ago he articulated his views on India/Pak policy, please allow me to
present how his thougths are perceived-

Pakistan is every day violating the cease-fire which came into effect on
September 23, 1965. Evidently, under the cloak of cease-fire she is
preparing for another aggression. Our present victory should therefore not
lull us into complacency. So long as Pakistan exists as at present she will
continue to be hostile and aggressive towards Bharat. Pakistan was born in
hatred for Bharat. It was carved out artificially by disrupting the natural,
national integrity of Bharat. The K.K.M. is therefore of the firm opinion
that peace and normalcy are inconceivable without the establishment of
Akhand Bharat.

(you may find more jewels of his thinking here-
http://www.rss.org:8080/New_RSS/Resolves/Resolution_1965.jsp)

May be we should go to war for the greater common good and establishment of
peace and normalcy.

I think it is good idea, it will be a great opportunity to tell the world
that look, even if we kill a few thousand of Muslims here and there every
couple of years, at the bottom of hearts we want to co-exist with our Muslim
brothers as part of one family, as part of one land, so we want to attack
Pakistan now and  then later may be Bangladesh too because these
Bangladeshis come to India often illegally. These poor bastards end up
working as rag pickers and spreading terrorism and we do not want that, we
want them to be legal rag pickers and we want them to be Indian citizens.

Following Obama, I can even imagine, Ms Kumkum Chaddha proclaiming- fellow
citizens, we want to go to war, not because we see a green state or a white
sate, or a saffron state but because we see  UNITED STATES OF INDIA.

As it was, so it will be.

So Gwaad help India!!


Regards

Taha

PS: I think Akhand Bharat is a great idea to think about- Here is a link on
its wiki entry-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undivided_India