Is Pakistan Dying?

Where's the wisdom we have lost in knowledge,
Where's the knowledge we have lost in information?

--- T.S. Eliot (The Rock)

The killing of Benazir Bhutto by self proclaimed Al-Qaeda gunmen at Rawalpindi has been a significant milestone in the chart of the terrorist organization. Benazir was coming back from political exile from Dubai and was perceived as the person USA wanted to pitchfork into the shambles that is now the state of Pakistan. While that may have counted high on the list of people who wanted to eliminate her , there are other significant players in the equation who were not exactly pleased at the way Benazir was making her comeback. The Islamic fanatics believe that a country is doomed when it is ruled by a woman and Benazir as the leader of the Pakistan People's Party was not an endearing prospective Prime Minister to them either.

Benazir had not distinguished herself to the Indians during her two tenures as Prime minister with her strong anti-India rhetoric. Inherited in large measure from her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and also readily cultivated by the very air and breath of Pakistani politics, it is quite amusing to hear the paeans that are being sung to her by the Indian politicians and the media as champion of democracy, an ideal leader and what not! Maybe the ordeal faced by Benazir while away from power has saddened these people so much that they have forgotten that she actively followed and stepped up the acts of terrorism in Kashmir Valley to destabilise India. Or that her tenure and her decisions were responsible for millions of Kasmiri Pandits being rendered homeless and staying s refugees in Jammu and Delhi. She was quite comfortable about Islamic Jihad launched by Pakistan against India and till date has never expressed her regret at having been part of the wave of killing unleashed upon India by her country bred terrorists in the name of religion. Neither was Benazir the messiah of democracy as she is being projected in the media now. Her Pakistan People's Party is a Bhutto family affair with no semblance of inner democracy. Keen observers would also remember how her younger brother Murtaza was assasinated when she was the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

It is sad and despicable that not many politicians in India have expressed their concern over the Kashmir issue and their desire to see a permanent resolution of the problem? How many have shown the desire to do whatever it takes to solve the Kashmir problem and see an end to the refugee status of the Kashmiri Pandits? But that is a different story altogether and a much deeper one that goes into the mind and methods of our Indian political parties.

Benazir first came to power in 1988 at the age of 35 but was removed on corruption charges after just 20 months in power. In 1993 she was re-elected but was again removed in 1996 on similar charges. She had echoed her father Zulfiqar's statements when she declared that Pakistan would wage a 1000 year war against India, when she came to power for the first time. This vitriolic statement emanating from across the border spurred Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India to wonder aloud whether Pakistan could fight India for even 1000 hours, leave alone 1000 years. It is indeed ridiculous to see Prime Minister from the same party - Congress(I) calling Benazir as a messenger of peace !

Benazir's ascent to power in 1988 coincided with the rise of the wave of militant attacks on Jammu and Kashmir, on Hindu targets. It was the fallout of the withdrawal of Russia from Afghanistan post Gorbachov era. The entire CIA apparatus which was hand in glove with the Pakistan ISI and had raised the battalion of Mujahiddens or "holy warriors" to fight the communists and drive them out of Afghanistan were now suddenly without an enemy and an immediate target. These holy warriors were now let loose on India fully armed with the latest weapons by CIA and ISI. It is these Mujahiddens which evolved into the Taliban after a series of extremely bloody internecine battles. With the CIA slowly stopping the funds and Pakistan losing its relevance as the frontier against communist ruled Afghanistan, these battle hardened Islamic fanatics and warriors channelised their energy against India and its army. Till date we have lost innumerable army personnel fighting these blood thirsty fanatics in Kashmir. Pakistan whose leader Benazir was then had a big hand in providing the tactical support and base to these Mujahiddens. It was a continuation of the "proxy war" to "bleed India by a thousand cuts" a policy initiated by General Zia ul Haq, the person responsible for hanging her father Zulfiqar in 1979.

Almost 20 years later today Pakistan is at the brink of collapse from within and without. It has been expelled from the Commonwealth, its anti India diatribes and opposition on major international platforms have sounded more and more irrelevant and funny and with India on the fast track to economic growth and development there are few takers for its anti-India stance even within the Islamic fraternity. After all everybody likes to cling to a winning bet. There are no takers for the losing horse. Right now india is the most happening country economically and otherwise too. Thanks to the proactive steps taken during Narasimha Rao's regme as PM and later folllowed up by Vajpayee during his tenure we have also grown out of the crap of staying away from Israel and blindly trying to woo the Islamic block even to the cost of hurting our own country's security interests. Israel has in its brief period of friendship amply rewarded our faith in them by delivering priceless war equipments at short notice on more than 1 occasion, and most recently during the Kargil war.

The vortex of despair and doom that Pakistan has descended into today is the culmination of the extreme negativity on which the entire country was founded and sought to be governed. It was undiluted hatred of Hindu India and Hinduism. The moral of the story today with the benefit of hindsight is that while negativity might yield short term benefits and spectacular growth its long term fate is one of assured destruction. The opposition to Hindusim has been a passionate exercise for many people down the centuries. However its practitioners have discovered to their horror that there is a certain vitality about it that is the source of eternal hope for its practitioners and despair for its foes. Pakistan is just the latest addition to that long list. The other reason for Pakistan's failure as a state was their failure to find something beyond their linguistic identity to hold the entire country united. Provincial and local identity runs deep in Pakistan, often over and above the national identity. Thus Benazir as a Sindhi had little acceptance among non-Sindhis, Nawaz Sharif as a Punjabi had his following mainly among Punjabis and none had any sort of following in the frontier provinces. Thus the failure actually goes back to the very genesis of Pakistan and how it was ill-conceived after negating the evolved consciousness of this land mass over millenia. This consciousness is what gives the true character or definition to the nation. In India that consciousness was definitely a Hindu or sanatanic consciousness, the wisdom of the Rishis that was bereft of narrow sectarian prejudices and mundane existence. This wisdom sought unity of one and all with the cosmos and in seeking to trample that elevated thought system, Pakistan was destined to failure since its conception.

In stark contrast to the doomsday soothsayers who say that this will pull the entire region to darkness and despair, I think that this is the threshold where India and the whole region can usher in a new era of peace and prosperity. But that would need strong and decisive leadership from our poilitical leaders. For too long the entire region has been pulled down by the bloody wars and acts of terrorism that has destabilised India. India will now be unshackled from the ropes of state sponsored terrorism that Pakistan was using to bind India with. It should use this opportunity to make quick progress on the domestic reforms front, crush corruption and engage Pakistan at a completely different level. It is going to be a challenge for our political leadership. So far New Delhi has only dealt with either military dictators or popularly elected Pakistani leaders with the sole agenda of opposing india. Now the geo-political reality has changed and America is no more interested in arming Pakistan. Besides Pakistan's economy is faltering badly and India is quickly emerging as a global economic hotspot. In these changed circumstances India has to quickly evolve a new working relationship and engagement with Pakistan, whose political stability is in India's interest. This might need India to engage other countries like America, China, Afghanistan and Russia to work out and install a stable leadership in Pakistan.

There is no doubt a lingering fear of the missiles falling into the hand of the terrorists but the best safeguard against that would be to increase our engagement with the Pakistanis right now. To assure them that the path of friendship would be laced with immense goodwill and good returns. The path of enemity or any fall back to the old habits of unbridled hostility with India would only take their country even backwards and doom. However going by our past performance and even the current statements being made by India's leadership which are nothing more than the cursory expressions of shock and dismay it would seem a distant dream. Only time would tell whether Pakistan would become another case of wasted opportunity just like Bangladesh before it.