When
will we wake up?
Sense of democracy and rational thought should
dominate over enthusiasm for war. Rationality is rare. Prime Minister Narendra
Modi appears like an untarnished hero. Bharatiya Janata Party
president Amit Shah virtually claims that security and war are part of his vote
bank. People conflate terms such as Kashmiri, Pakistani and Muslim while
threatening citizens peacefully pursuing their livelihood. The whole country is not knowing the difference between war and cricket.
We are not only a nation; we are
also a civilisation. Jingoism as patriotism is the order of the day. We talk of
war as if it is a problem of traffic control. Our strategists, our
international relations experts fetishise security and patriotism. This has done more damage to freedom and
democracy.
We count the number of lives and bodies
destroyed. Such attitude destroys the power and pluralism of the idea of India
as a society and a democracy. The minute we create a demonology around
Pakistan, we cease to think rationally or creatively about our own behaviour in
Kashmir. We can talk with ease about Pakistani belligerency, about militarism
in Pakistan, but we refuse to reflect on our own brutality in Kashmir or
Manipur.
Should not India as a creative democracy ask,
why is there a state of internal war in Kashmir and the Northeast for decades?
Why is it we do not have the moral leadership to challenge Pakistan to engage
in peace? Because Pakistan behaves as a rogue state, should we abandon the
civilisational dream of a Mohandas Gandhi or an Abdul Ghaffar Khan?
Strategy shows that India is moving into a
geopolitical trap where China, which treats Pakistan as a vassal state, is the
prime beneficiary of Pulwama. The Chinese as a society and a regime would be
content to see an authoritarian India militarised, sans its greatest
achievement which is democracy.
Peace is not an effeminate challenge to the
machismo of the national security state as idol but a civilisational response
to the easy brutality of the nation state. One must realise that India as a
civilisation has given the world some of its most creative concepts of peace,
inspired by Buddha, Nanak, Kabir, Ghaffar Khan and Gandhi.
All these above ideas of non-violence are nice
to read, right? But let us now come to practicality. Pretence at
intellectuality and great wisdom does not gain much traction against reality. Lack of
response in face of aggression isn't peace but submission and cowardice. No
courage is required for that. Yes, the ideal thing to do is think like a civilisation,
but how to curb terrorism, which is the real issue? Buddha, Nanak, Kabir,
Gaffar Khan & Gandhi had not shouldered the responsibility of heading a
nation state, tasked with ensuring security and prosperity of the citizens.
Nobel thoughts and right questions - Indians
have been asking for decades. Consequently we continue to bleed. The interests
of the people of the entire state of Jammu & Kashmir, and of the rest of
India, are being sacrificed to pander to the few notables in the Kashmir
valley.
While peace is a definite goal for all
societies, countries, economies, if a neighbour is consistently promoting
terrorism across the borders - and there have been enough instances of this - a
responsible democracy cannot and must not remain a mute witness, engaging in
just long-winded diplomatic discussions. Can the country solve the problems
through Gandhian ideals with a 'rouge state'?
Today, the world suffers due to the terrorist factory that Pakistan has
become. It is time to take action, not just indulge in diplomacy. Sometimes, it
is war that ensures peace. Let's not
have a war, it is unnecessary in today's context. But let's not take things lying down.
Yes, war is an expensive exercise. Mr JK Galbraith opined the cost of war is at
the expense of basic necessities for the marginalised and it was never too late
to consider the alternatives to the war.
Unfortunately for the last 72 years India and Pakistan have spent
considerable amount of money in arms and ammunition which could have been spent
for schools, hospitals and needed infrastructure for the neglected and
voiceless. When will we wake up?
No comments:
Post a Comment