The Reuters reports:
Criticising the bomb attack on former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as reprehensible, old rival India indirectly urged Islamabad on Friday to do more to curb “terrorism” in the region. India’s condemnation came hours after 133 people were killed in a suspected suicide bomb attack aimed at Bhutto as she was driven through Karachi to greet supporters on her return from eight years in exile.
Having watched the sequence of events unfold live on Television (courtesy Sahara Samay) the audacity and the mayhem was shocking to say the least.
So what to make of Pakistan ?
While we await the astute Nitin Pai’s take, some observations from Offstumped.
Just as the events were unfolding in Karachi, Fox News in the U.S. cut over to a live feed from a Pakistani News Channel while Neil Cavuto was interviewing Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S., Mr. Durrani. The Ambassador one must say did an admirable job of spin defending his master, Mia Musharraf’s regime. But these words by him were most striking, and unsurprisingly in the “black and white” world of American Politics, went unchallenged.
“Pakistan is a multi-party Democracy much like India”
Clearly the Ambassador’s state of mind?is beyond “self denial” almost bordering “the delusional”. Some time back Offstumped had related an anecdote from a GeoTV discussion on strategic affairs with a former DG of the ISI in which he described Pakistan as an upstart Sunni majority nation with no baggage of history.
What kind of an upstart, adventurist experiment is Pakistan ?
If one looks at the totality of the situation in Pakistan -
from its North Western Borders to its heartland, its nuclear proliferation by A.Q. Khan, its grooming of the Taliban on one hand, jehadi outfits in India on the other, the links to attacks in UK and the links to failed attacks elsewhere, the number of Al-Qaeda wanted that were picked up inside Pakistan, and the consensus view on where Bin Laden’s holed up, the spate of suicide attacks, the lal masjid fiasco and now this …..
it is clear that we have?unwittingly?contributed to the creation of?a Frankenstein nation.
This is an experiment gone horribly wrong.?
With more Muslims living in democratic India, Pakistan never has been able to reconcile its past with its present identity. The military establishment that runs Pakistan has been deluded into believing its a major geo-political player by the Americans and the Chinese who have viewed it as nothing more than a pawn in their geopolitical games. With a Nuclear Arsenal at its disposal the establishment’s delusional thinking is understandable. With the spate of suicide bombings the desperation of its people is also understandable.
Neither the Americans nor the Chinese can be expected to do anything substantial about this mutant nation beyond the cliched calls for return to democracy and ending support to?the Taliban. So where do we go from here and what attitude must India have ?
We fought wars, we pow-wowed along the borders, we grudgingly accepted living with ISI fomented terror hoping it will eventually go away, we even entertained ideas of jointly managing Kashmir. We did not scare monger ourselves into an arms race, we did not start digging bunkers out of Nuclear Paranoia, we even indulged an invasion by proxy while taking care we dont cross the borders.
Nowhere in history or in present times across the globe has any nation tolerated or indulged its neighbour to this degree without an all pervasive environment of military uncertainity.
Our attitude towards Pakistan has always been comforted by a notion of stability in Pakistan.
It is perhps time that false comfort must be called into question after today’s events.
It is perhaps time for India to wake up to the reality of the Frankenstein Nation, Pakistan is fast turning into.
Recently Apollo over at The Catapault commented on a suggestion by Jerry Rao on Pakistan being India’s buffer state, an interesting comment on the same post by?a reader asking who will buffer us from Pakistan ?
A notion of stability in Pakistan buffered us all this long and that notion is?fast turning?out to be merely?a figment of our failed imagination …………
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Yossarin,
It is interesting to note that many commentators and analysts do an excellent job in analyzing the current situation in Pakistan and even make often accurate predictions for the short and medium term.
But there is a definite lack of publications (at least in the public domain) which deals with the long term effects and implications of the happenings in Pakistan. There is pressing need to discuss and formulate a plan which can be implemented when the current play of “watchful inaction” will not suffice anymore. We will have to become more active to secure India’s interest if the on-going turbulence in Pakistan leads it to an end-state which is harmful to us.
Nitin cannot be more correct when he writes,
“Watchful inaction is likely to serve India’s interests as long as Pakistan’s leaders are preoccupied with consolidating their own hold on power and dealing with the demands of the insurgency on their Western front. Since it’s rather unlikely that the threats to Pakistan’s internal stability have diminished, this is the time to plan for the day when inaction would no longer be possible.”
A bomb blast of this magnitude in Karachi must be taken with the same seriousness, if not more, as a blast in Mumbai/Hyderabad. For in the longer term, these events in Pakistan will have direct consequences for us. What will be these consequences? One cannot possibly say, and so the urgent need for discussion. This is no time for schadenfreude.
V
Yossarin,
According to latest figures Pakistan has more Muslims than India.
Varahamihir – fully agree, apart from getting misty eyed with puppu jhuppi ideas there has been no public debate on long term implications
RS – where did you get those figures from ?
RS, your ahead man, i was just about to make the same point. India has approx 13.5% of 1.12 billion i.e. 151 million muslims, but pakistan now has 161 million, so india having more muslims is a thing of the past. Now pakistan has more and much more fanatic muslims.
RS, your ahead man, i was just about to make the same point. India has approx 13.5% of 1.12 billion i.e. 151 million muslims, but pakistan now has 161 million, so india having more muslims is a thing of the past. Now pakistan has more and much more fanatic muslims.
U.S. figures are 158,152,247 – 159,799,666 for Pakistan and 135,583,938 – 151,402,065 for India.
More than anything else, look how cheap human lives have become for the likes of Bhutto and Musharraf. Every Jihadi group worth its salt had warned of attacks, the last time a procession was held for the Chief Justice in Karachi, mayhem broke out. And despite all that they went ahead with this grand welcome for Bhutto?
Some 150 lives for cheap TV footage?
yossarin: great clarion call. India is the only one with real skin in this game. Unfortunately our somnolent babudom and society doesn’t see it that way. It would take a frontal military attack on India for us to wake up an smell the gunpowder – something their useless army is probably smart not to venture into and get their butts kicked … again.
regarding the “who has more Muslims” question: some of the murkiness must be about counting the Kashmiris as Indians/Pakistanis. In any case, the Pakistanis are breeding like rabbits – so if they haven’t overtaken us yet, they will do so soon … unless Balochistan, Sindh and Pakhtunkhwa decide to secede
“A bomb blast of this magnitude in Karachi must be taken with the same seriousness, if not more, as a blast in Mumbai/Hyderabad. ”
What seriousness? “This things happen” seriousness?
Does it matter how many Muslims are in Pak vs India? And where are all those 20% Hindus in the Land of Pure? In any case, they’ll still sending terrorists across and still be killing us.
Yossarin, if fact MMS will do exactly that – give aid and comfort and call for more dialogue.
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/10/bhuttos-interview-with-paris-match.html
Nagesh – thanks for the url, the translation is funny at times
Chandra – read Praveen Swami in Hindu today, pretty scary stuff
libertarian – i wonder who is keeping count in the tribal areas they cant even get the army to enter there
balaji – barkha dutt in the HT wrote about how she spoke to benazir 2 days ago and how out of touch with reality she was, this shit is serious and reality just hit benazir and many others across the globe
Yossarin,
Timely piece. Yes, I’m putting some thoughts together on this one. To tantalise readers: it involves examining whether India can play tit-for-tat with two counterparts, who themselves may either be loggerheads with each other, or merely playing good cop/bad cop wit us, or both.
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Hello…I Googled for call pakistan, but found your page about Frankensteinistan | Offstumped…and have to say thanks. nice read.
Consider this, too http://www.samsonblinded.org/news/muslim-world/pakistan
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