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

[anupam chakravartty]

I thought I would boycott the trash written about IPL, My Name is Khan
and India-Pakistan. Let me first show the reader the point where I
left reading this piece because I know what was to follow will be
based on a logical leap that was made in this critical juncture: "For
over two decades 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!"

Col Athavle research must have so painstaking that he completely
overlooked the argument which he was making here. Is the colonel ready
to address the hate spewed by his own countrymen against Pakistan from
the time of its creation? If he is, then where is the research. He is
taking pains to research textbooks from Pakistan or the stuff taught
in the school, here the moment a crescent on a green background
appears, there is hue and cry about Pakistani hoisting a flag.

Second, if South Africa was banned from participating in the
international sports meet, there was an oppressive regime ruling over
the state. there was a peoples' movement in the manner how india's or
pakistan's national movements were taking place in 1930s or 1940s.
(strangely, Berlin held olympics even with Hitler in power -- Col
Athavle if you can draw some inspiration from here instead of lining
up examples which cannot even be compared)

Third, you have assumed that everyone in Pakistan is a jehadi. But
then your authorities (which means the Indian government) has been
taking a serious note of Balochistan? Why is India doing so if that
state is full of jehadis? Everyone should just let Pakistanis bicker
among themselves, after all according Col Athavle they are all
jehadis.

Four, how much has Col Athavle understood this wholly Islamic view of
jehadis? Does he know that variations (some are stark while other
subtle exist)? By making this claim, he himself is putting all the
Islamists under one umbrella, which i am afraid unifies even the
single strand which wants to have its own voice in this clamour of
religious identitarian politics.

I hope the pains that Col Athavle has taken to research this comes out
even stronger than the bullet shells being fired in Siachen every year
where soldiers get killed every year by either bullets or an
oppressive weather.

-Anupam



On 2/14/10, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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)
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