Thursday, October 15, 2009
K-Word
Jeremy Kahn wants India to be included in a "grand bargain" with Pakistan to ensure cooperation on Afghanistan. What crap - I said as much in the comments below the article.
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I posted the comment below on that blog which initially appeared, but seems to have been later removed (I wonder why?). So, posting it here with some additional linkage:
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Part I:
I want to acknowledge "Indian Muslim"'s thoughtful comment above. S/he is absolutely right about Pakistani regime(s) not caring about Muslims, as all religious minorities (Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jews, etc) as well as various Islamic sects (Ahmadiyyas, Ismailis, Shias etc. Ahamidiyyas have it especially rough, as they have been declared "non-Muslims" by Pakistani laws, and they have been denied voting rights since 1985 through the latest general election) are routinely and regularly persecuted, very often with help from Pakistani laws (such as the notorious "anti-blasphemy law") and support from state actors. And, 3 million people were butchered, and 200,000 women raped, by Pakistani forces in Bangladesh in 1971.
Agnivayu is also right when s/he says: "Hinduism is naturally secular," as Hinduism does not impose a fixed path to reaching "salvation," but instead purports that there are multiple paths for getting there. Rooted in such secular and libertarian foundations, India's secular and pluralistic democracy is home to many diverse religions, languages, ethnicities and sub-cultures, and many groups of people from other religions (such as Parsis, Zoarastrians, Jews, etc) came to India to escape persecution elsewhere and prospered (eg, the Tatas, the owners of the great Indian industrial powerhouse TATA, are Parsis.)
Pakistan was founded on the specious and dangerous Islamist notion that any Muslim majority region of the world needs to be broken off from the native country and formed a new Muslim country out of, which is also the guiding 'principle' for terrorists like Hafiz Saeed. The same Islamist notion is at play in the alleged "Kashmir dispute". Recall that King Hari Singh of Kashmir acceded all of Kashmir under his rule (i.e. including the currently Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) and China occupied Aksai Chin) via his instrument of accession (of October 27, 1947), and hence, according to the legal framework setup by the departing British rulers, Greater Kashmir (i.e. the undivided union of J&K, PoK, Aksai Chin) became part of the secular and pluralistic democracy of India.
Part II:
A viable solution to the "Kashmir problem" that can result in peace in the long haul involves the following steps:
1. the world community should tell Pakistan and China to return the Kashmiri land they are illegally occupying back to India, allowing India to develop Greater Kashmir in peace.
2. US and the World must demand Pakistan to permanently shut down all of ISI/military-sponsored terrorist camps and operations, and cut off all aid unless and until Pakistan follows through and shows solid evidence of having done so (instead of tripling aid to Pakistan as the US is set to do.)
3. dramatically increase Indian involvement in Afghanistan reconstruction to speed up civilian infrastructure building.
Recall that Pakistan's pet Taliban regime not only hosted Al Queda (which unleashed terror on rest of the world), but also reverted Afghanistan to 7th century barbaric rule of denying women's rights and girls' education etc. That's what we are going to keep getting from trying to appease Pakistan's powers (i.e. corrupt elitist civilian puppet governments, anti-India military and the terrorist organization ISI) without being absolutely firm in asking it to shutdown its terrorism-breeding activities.
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