[Reader-list] Reg: Indo-Pak Peace Process : A Mirage??

[Rakesh Iyer]

Hi all

This is an article where the idea of the peace process being India and
Pakistan has been put under question. I hope others would like to express
their views and ideas on the relevance or irrelevance of the peace process
between the two nations, and whether it should continue or not accordingly.

The article does have a bias, but then who among us doesn't have one? I
would like all biases to be there on public display as opposed to being
hidden and turning itself into a sinister ploy somewhere some day.

Rakesh

http://news.rediff.com/column/2010/feb/11/peace-with-pakistan-chasing-a-mirage.htm

Peace with Pakistan: Chasing a mirage
February 11, 2010 16:24 IST


*Peace with Pakistan is not possible in the foreseeable future. Those
charged with the responsibility to safeguard our country and its citizens
will do well to get a reality check and devise our defence posture
accordingly, writes Colonel Dr Anil Athale (retd).*

The frozen peace process between India and Pakistan is in the news, again. A
joint peace campaign has been started by an Indian and a Pakistani news
organisation and a Bollywood star has jumped into the fray by regretting
that Pakistani cricketers were not picked for the Indian Premier League [
Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=indian+premier+league>].

This ought to provide the Indian government and people an opportunity to
take stock. After all the peace process, started in 1999 with Atal Bihari
Vajpayee's [ Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=atal+bihari+vajpayee>]
famous bus ride to Lahore [
Images <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=lahore> ], is over
10 years old. This is a good occasion to take a dispassionate look at the
past 10 years.

But before we go into the subject proper, it is necessary to kill the
nonsensical notion of 'keeping sports above politics'. The Bollywood star
seems to have taken time out from his busy schedule of peddling men's
fairness cream and junk food to take up the case of Pakistani cricketers.
The usual suspect, the politically-correct media, has jumped on the
bandwagon and there is an outcry. This seems to be a case of collective
amnesia. For over two decades South Africa [
Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=south+africa>]
faced a sports boycott by most of the world. India was an enthusiastic
cheerleader in this. Yes, apartheid was wrong, and so is jihadi terrorism!

Even as some cry foul over the boycott of Pakistani players, most of the
Arab and Muslim world merrily continue their boycott of Israeli
sportspersons. Pakistan was at the forefront of boycotting the Moscow [
Images <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=moscow> ] Olympics [
Images <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=olympics> ] of 1980.

My research trip to South Africa recently brought home the fact that sports
boycotts hurt, and hurt badly. Why does Pakistani society not introspect and
root out the extremists in their midst?

The funny part is that our Bollywood star goes on to claim that as per
Indian tradition '*Atithi Devo Bhava' *(the guest is like God), he is pained
that we are not honouring 'guests' from across our western border. He seems
to have forgotten that just about a year and two months ago, 10 'guests'
from the same country came to Mumbai [
Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=mumbai>] and
massacred nearly 180 people.

While the media asks all and sundry, why not ask the thousands of relatives
of victims of the 26/11 terror attacks as to what they feel about inviting
Pakistani players when even now the mastermind Hafeez Saeed is free to
continue to spread his hate ideology? I am quite conscious that I am in the
company of a certain political party, but well, even they can be right
sometimes.

*The root cause*

In June-July 2006, I participated in the goodwill mission between Mumbai and
Karachi. Within a few days of our return from a goodwill trip to Karachi,
the terrorists struck at Mumbai's local trains on July 11, killing more than
200 innocent people. But such is public memory in India that it has been
forgotten totally. The pseudo-peaceniks and sundry busybodies now want
Indians to forget the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and continue the peace process
with Pakistan.

Let me hasten to add that we met a lot of people of goodwill and peace in
Pakistan. But most of them were part of the elite. There is no doubt about
their sincerity as well. But there is a total disconnect between the elite
and the masses. The biggest problem in the case of Pakistan is that civil
society has very little influence over either the masses or the government.

The argument then was and today is -- the jihadis want to derail the peace
process, that is why they are doing it but we must continue with normal
relations, sporting ties, cultural exchanges et al*. * All this while the
Pakistanis deny any connection/responsibility towards these atrocities. I do
not buy this argument. If the peace process is not capable of bringing about
these minimum conditions, then it is useless. I publicly disassociated
myself from this pointless exercise.

We have had cultural exchanges, people to people contacts, sports ties and
government level talks for over 11 years now (beginning with Vajpayee's
Lahore bus trip), yet the terror attacks inspired from across the border
have continued. Pakistani state and civil society remain as hostile as ever,
barring a minor fringe of the candlelight brigade. Pakistanis are forever in
a denial mode.

Due to the courage of Tukaram Omble of the Mumbai police, we managed to
catch one terrorist alive during the Mumbai attacks. If this did not happen,
the Pakistanis would have continued to deny any role in the attacks. What
Pakistan needs is a major surgery, while we are trying to apply bandaid. I
do not think the Indians who advocate peace and normalcy* *have any
understanding of the root cause of all this, that is the systematic
brainwashing of their young students with hate for the last 20 years.

*The dark forces in Pakistan*

At a chief ministers' conference in Delhi [
Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=delhi>]
(February 7), the home minister and prime minister mentioned that
there
are 'dark forces' working in Pakistan to commit crimes against India and
destabilise Pakistan in order to take over that country. What are these
forces and how strong and widespread is their influence is an issue that
needs serious attention.

In 1986, while working for my PhD on regional security, I sought an answer
to this very question. I had then got in touch with our military advisor at
Islamabad [ Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=islamabad>],
Brigadier D K Khanna (who later retired as lieutenant general) to have
a
look at the kind of history that is being taught to Pakistani
schoolchildren. To my eternal gratitude, he sent me the text books published
by Hijari Publications Lahore. (*Muajshrati Aloom, prescribed for VI & VII
standards and Tehrik E Pakistan by Professor Mohammed Aslam for IX & X
standards). *These are in Urdu script, so while posted in Kashmir [
Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=kashmir>] I got
them translated and transcribed on tape. The contents were
revealing. To cut a story short -- the books had created an image of 'Hindu
India' forever scheming the downfall of Islam and Pakistan.

This is the staple hate diet on which the post Zia-ul Haq generation has
been brought up. Curiously, the fictional history takes the existence of
Pakistan* *to the pre-Christ period and omits even Alexander's raid and
Porus's heroic resistance. It dismisses a period of 2,000 years between the
Mohenjodaro civilisation of 3500 BC and Mohammad bin Qasim's invasion of
Sindh as 'myths and legends'. This was Zia's gift to Pakistan. It must be
remembered that we are not talking of madrasas -- this is in regular
government-run schools!

While in the ministry of defence, I wrote about this 'root cause' of
Pakistani hostility in a strategic analysis for the ministry in 1988*. *This
was possibly noted and taken up at the prime ministers' level in December
1988 and in a declaration in Islamabad by Rajiv Gandhi [
Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=rajiv+gandhi>]
and Benazir Bhutto [
Images <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=benazir+bhutto> ] it
was accepted that both* *countries will revise their textbooks to remove
biases. It was typical of the Indian weakness of trying to mollify the
Pakistanis. For in India, there are no textbooks that denigrate Islam.* *But
soon thereafter, both the prime ministers lost power and the whole issue was
forgotten. It was only revived in 2004 under General Pervez Musharraf [
Images <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=pervez+musharraf> ].

On my part I took up this issue with Professor A H Nayyar (of Pakistan) at a
world peace meet in Melbourne [
Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=melbourne>] in
December 1998. To the credit of Professor Nayyar and Professor Parvez
Hoodbhoy, they have been working at it. But such is the opposition that I do
not know to what extent they have succeeded. In any case, even if the
curriculum reform takes place now, the results will be visible only after 20
years. But what is the world to do now with Zia's fanatic children?

I do feel vindicated that I raised this issue of effects of this
indoctrination with the director (near east and South Asia) at the US
National Security Council, Sandy Charles, on July 17, 1991. I had carried a
copy of my 1988 article and pleaded with her that in another 20 years time
as this generation comes of age, it will threaten not just India but the US
as well.

The reason to elaborate on all this history is to drive home the point that
fanaticism in Pakistan is widespread and deep-rooted. There is no organised
effort to counter the ideology of hate.

Paraphrasing a Mao dictum, the jihadis survive since they swim in a pond of
fanatics. Without the latter, like fish out of water, the jihadis would not
survive.

What it also means is that even if an odd Hafeez Saeed is prosecuted, the
jihadi mentality will survive. It is amusing to how frequently the Indian
media talks of 'mastermind' of terror etc. Like the legendary *Ahi Rawan
Mahi Rawan*, even if one demon is slayed more will be created from each drop
of his blood.

This then comes to the surface in a Sohail Tanvir [
Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=sohail+tanvir>]
interview in which he blames Hindus for the IPL snub or sundry
comments by
Imran Khan [ Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=imran+khan>].

Many well-meaning Indians talk of peace based on a shared culture and
history. Does the average Pakistani accept this? Pakistan has assiduously
constructed a wholly Islamist view of history, culture and even ethnicity
over the last 60 years. Do the people dreaming of *'Aman Ki Asha'*  even
realise this?

Peace with Pakistan will remain a mirage for the foreseeable future. Those
charged with the responsibility to safeguard our country and its citizens
will do well to get a reality check and devise our defence posture
accordingly. One can't but quote an old George Washington saying, 'If you
want peace, be prepared for war!'

*Colonel Dr Anil Athale (retd) is coordinator of the Pune-based Inpad and a
Chhattrapati Shivaji Fellow working on insurgency. *
Colonel Dr Anil Athale (retd)