Let the Sanity Prevail

Last month when the domes­tic ten­sions were sim­mer­ing because of Qadri’s long march, an unto­ward inci­dent took place on the Pak-India board­er. In a series of clash­es, two Pak­istani and two Indi­an sol­diers were killed, includ­ing behead­ing of an Indi­an jawan. This led to height­en­ing ten­sions and chau­vin­is­tic media mon­ger­ing on both sides. The rage on Indi­an side was appar­ent­ly greater as the Indi­an PM was forced to say that ‘after this bar­bar­ic act, there can­not be busi­ness as usu­al with Pak­istan’. The new visa regime between both the coun­tries signed in Decem­ber last year was also sus­pend­ed, Pakistan’s hock­ey team was sent back, and sim­i­lar was being expect­ed of Women’s nation­al crick­et team. For some time, hos­til­i­ty and unpre­dictabil­i­ty pre­vailed over the hopes of nor­mal­iza­tion and peace.

The attempts on derail­ing the peace process between these unfor­tu­nate neigh­bors are not new. We have been wit­ness­ing it now and then in the forms rang­ing from Kargil war, attack on Indi­an Par­lia­ment to Mum­bai attacks. This is not just coin­ci­dence that on each occa­sion, the tim­ings of these inter­ven­tions were cho­sen to be most fatal. This time it appears in response to new trade and visa regime and a great many oth­er con­fi­dence build­ing mea­sures. More­over anoth­er con­tex­tu­al fac­tor could be the first time ever announce­ment by the Pak­istan Army Chief say­ing that the greater threat Pak­istan faces is inter­nal, not exter­nal. These devel­op­ments must have irked those India-cen­tric ele­ments in the pow­er­ful cir­cles who mea­sure patri­o­tism only by the lev­el of ani­mos­i­ty with India.

For­tu­nate­ly both the nations seem to have learned from the past expe­ri­ences. Despite the entire hul­la­baloo, san­i­ty has pre­vailed. Offi­cials on both sides have expressed their com­mit­ment to con­tin­ue the peace process. But as long as there are sec­tions of estab­lish­ment and soci­ety on both sides who breed on hatred and wars, the threat of anoth­er mis­ad­ven­ture, or worse, will loom. Such a threat can­not be eas­i­ly ignored and it has to be checked by con­tain­ing, if not purg­ing, the hawks on both sides.

The fact remains that the spoil­er brigades rest on the gen­er­al dis­course of hatred. Only a con­sis­tent com­mit­ment to the peace process, against all odds, is the anti­dote to such a dis­course. But a purga­tive of hon­est intro­spec­tion must pre­cede for the anti­dote to work. That would mean admit­ting our past mis­takes and learn­ing from them, both at state and soci­etal lev­el.

—Writ­ten by Rab Nawaz

(Pub­lished in The Laal­tain — Issue 7)