Its economy is in the dumps, global watchdogs remain unconvinced about its efforts to wind up its terror factories and its sham ‘peace’ overtures to India having run their course Pakistan is wiggling with discomfort and humiliation. Its itch to wage a war with India is fraught with danger and the unpredictable Americans are taking their own time to rehabilitate the rogue nation of Pakistan that is desperate to see Uncle Sam resume its beneficiary role.
That does not prevent Pakistanis from living up to their reputation for cheap behaviour by parodying the Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman they had captured after the Balakot airstrike (by the IAF in February) through a TV advertisement on the cricket World Cup currently on in the UK. Earlier, entire Pakistan was up in arms against the Indian wicketkeeper M.S. Dhoni displaying an insignia of the para regiment of the Indian Army where he is an honorary Lieutenant Colonel. The depth to which the Pakistani sports fans can go has been exhibited on innumerable occasions. For them every encounter with India on a sport field is akin to ‘jihad’ which Pakistan must win.
The “emergence” of a militant Hindu right wing in India has worried Pakistan. They are making loud noises about the ‘sufferings’ of the Muslim minority in India. But the boot is on the other leg. The Hindu minority in Pakistan has been oppressed from the beginning. The blasphemy law is aimed at terrorising and harassing all the minorities. A Hindu veterinary doctor in Sindh who refused to attend to an ailing animal in the farm of an influential Muslim neighbour late at night has been accused of blasphemy which carries the death sentence.
The charge against him looked downright ridiculous: He had wrapped medicine in a page torn from the Koran. The doctor would have to be completely insane to do such a thing. But like fanatics anywhere, fanatic Pakistanis do not listen to reason. They set his house on fire and the doctor had to be shifted to an unknown place for safety. A Christian woman, Asia Bibi, was on the death row for severl years till the Supreme Court freed her of the charge of blasphemy; yet nobody in Pakistan could guarantee her safety. She had to be flown to Canada in secrecy.
The illusion of ‘Naya’ (new) Pakistan promised by the military-propped Prime Minister Imran Khan has already shattered. Nemesis India openly snubbed Pakistan by refusing to invite Imran to the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi. Now comes another snub from India: the plane carrying Modi to Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek, for Shangahi Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit avoided Pak air space in a display of displeasure with Pakistan.
To be sure, Pakistan has been giving plenty of reasons for incurring India’s displeasure. Soon after an Indian Air Force (IAF) strike at Balakot terror camp in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan closed its air space which affected all West-ward flights from and to India. It also meant Pakistan losing revenue that it would have earned for the usage of its air space by commercial flights.
But Pakistan is unique among the countries of the world: It is happy to cut off its nose to spite the face. The Pakistanis believe that the revenue loss was ‘compensated’ by the extra financial burden that Indian carriers had to bear and also it takes longer to travel to and from India to the West.
Since the closure of the air space was an unfriendly act, India should have banned all flights over its own air space by Pakistani aircrafts. It is foolhardy to think that Pakistan will ever listen to reason. It is necessary to adopt the tit-for-tat policy when dealing with Pakistan. Anything that Pakistan can interpret as a sign of India’s ‘weakness’ has to be avoided; sometimes a tougher attitude might appear to be a more suitable way.
The Balakot airstrike looks to have instilled a fear of the ‘unknown’ in Pakistan. The decision by Pakistan to close the air space indicates that its paranoia about India has heightened. Pakistanis might have found it difficult to sleep well at night, unsure when and where an India plane, not necessarily a military one, might strike. Closing the air space was one way to get a good night’s rest.
But it is surprising that the Modi government, with its determination to act tough with Pakistan as long as it incites violence in India and continues to export terror, still makes an occasional gesture that is bound to be interpreted by Pakistan as one of ‘weakness’. When commercial flights—with their load of paying passengers–can bear the extra financial burden by not flying over Pakistan airspace, an Indian government plane with a minister on board can afford to follow the same rule. More over, India should have been quick after making the initial mistake of ‘requesting’ Pakistan to allow Modi’s plane fly over its airspace to snub Pakistan when its foreign office condescendingly announced that Islamabad had agreed ‘in principle’ to the Indian request and an appropriate decision would be conveyed to India later.
It might be recalled that Gen Parvez Musharraf, the then dictator of Pakistan, had turned down India’s unilateral decision to let his plane fly over Indian airspace on way to a SAARC summit in Kathmandu. He flew over China to reach Kathmandu to embarrass India. But he was himself not sure whether the kind of intransigence he showed would bring any diplomatic gain. So he did the unthinkable as the plenary session was in progress. On his way to the speaker’s podium, he stopped where the then Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sitting and shook his hand. Well, his action took many by surprise but not the keen followers of Pakistan’s sense of honour and pride.
– by Allabaksh