The Congress has been reluctant to hold Pakistan and its collaborators here accountable for for anti-India activities because the minority vote-bank is its only hope in the 2014 election
In his statement on the August 9-12 events in Kishtwar, why did Union Minister for Home Affairs P Chidambaram make the same mistake his Cabinet colleague and Defence Minister AK Antony committed with his first statement on the August 6 line of Control eventIJMr Antony had sought to whitewash the Pakistani Army’s role in firing at and the killing of Indian soldiers on August 6. Outrage across the country and his own Army chief’s assessment forced him to change his statement and acknowledge Islamabad’s involvement.
Meanwhile, Pakistan had scored a diplomatic advantage and our Government stood ridiculed for its calculated attempt to shield Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. If Pakistan’s civilian Government has to fear its military brass, since there a history of the latter overturning elected Governments, then that is its business.
If Pakistan’s Government is also under extreme pressure from jihadi groups, that again exposes the faulty logic of partition based on the idea of a Muslim homeland. Today, daily killings of Sunnis and Shias, who bomb each other’s mosques not only in Pakistan but also in Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Mali, and the intolerance of one Islamic sect for the other in most Muslim-majority countries, exposes the reality of the Ummah. As for Pakistan, it stands on an unstable three-legged edifice comprising the military, the mullahs and the civilian Government that are all colluding with and cut ting at one another.
Earlier this month, Jamaat ud-Dawa’ah leader Hafiz Saeed, who is the prime suspect in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, reiterated his threat against India at a public rally in lahore. The civilian Government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did nothing to restrain him.
Now, why is Mr Chidambaram insisting, along with Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, that the targeted attacks on Hindus and Sikhs in Kishtwar were simply communal riots and not an extension of the jihadi war that is being waged by Pakistan-based elements against non-Muslim residents of the StateIJ The manner in which the situation developed — with mobs chanting anti-India slogans, waving Pakistani flags after offering prayers on Eid — has been ignored in the Government’s statement that was presented to Parliament.
Also, while Hindu and Sikh commercial establishments were being attacked in Kishtwar, similar attacks were being carried out simultaneously in 14 other locations in the Jammu region. They too were sidelined in the official version. The Government is unable to answer the simple question: Why was the Army, which was present in Kishtwar, not called in immediately to bring the situation under controlIJ
The irony of it all was that then Jammu & Kashmir’s Minister for Home Affairs Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo was present in Kishtwar on the fateful day, since the town is part of his constituency. His role was so obviously anti-national that Mr Abdullah was forced to call for his resignation. If the ruling National Conference itself finds its leaders involved with jihadis, what face can Chief Minister Abdullah present to the countryIJ
Mr Abdullah blames Indian political parties, mostly the BJP, for alerting the country about Pakistani jihadis and their local collaborators for ethnic cleansing in the Chenab Valley. He said: “Their (BJP’s) entire aim seems to be recreating the conditions of 2008 (Amarnath land row agitation) so they can exploit it in Parliament and Assembly elections.”
But why is Mr Abdullah afraid of the truthIJ What explanation does he have for not calling in the Army to contain the violence in Kishtwar until six hours afterwardsIJ That the Chief Minister is reluctant to present the truth is also evident from his decision to shut down news channels in his State.
The ability of jihadi elements in Kishtwar to turn a sacred event into an anti-India demonstration and a movement to drive out Hindus and Sikhs from the region, calls into question the National Conference-led Government’s credentials to ensure the safety of minorities in this Muslim-majority State. The Union Government too has to share the blame.
In its desperation to give Mr Sharif a clean chit and pursue a peace process with him — even as powerful elements in Pakistan seek to take advantage of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan next year to re-install a Taliban Government in Kabul and shift the weight of Talibani fighters to India, especially Kashmir — New Delhi is sidelining the overwhelming security interests of India.
For the ruling Congress, the looming general election in 2014 is becoming a bugbear. With every electoral survey ringing in the Congress’s ears like it has been caused by a toxin overload, the party is in a desperate state. The signals from a declining economy are all indicating that the Congress is doomed. When onion prices are as high as Rs 80 a kg and tomatoes are selling at Rs 130 a kg, one need not wait for inflation indices to tell you that the people’s anger against the Government is building up to a crescendo.
Industrial output is down, the rupee is sliding every day, consumers are not spending as inflation is accelerating, service sector jobs are becoming scarce and huge defaults in loans from businesses are threatening stability of of even state-owned banks. So the Congress has only one slogan left and that is of how secularism is in danger. Such a poll strategy will also help it consolidate its Muslim vote bank.
And this is why the Congress-led Government does not wanted to declare that Pakistan-sponsored jihad is India’s number one enemy and that it has willing anti-India collaborators within the country. It is surprising that after the ranting of Hafiz Saeed on Eid at lahore, the Government failed to call the Pakistani Prime Minister and hold him accountable for his letting such an open call to wage war against India be made from Pakistan’s soil.
The attack on minorities in Kishtwar on Eid has been followed by more such attacks in other parts of the Jammu region. The intensity and precision-targeting that has been characteristic of these attacks, point to ethnic cleansing as the objective. Events of the 90s, when Kashmiri Pandits were driven out, followed the same pattern, and history is now being repeated.
If political parties fail to see this plan unfolding before their eyes, they will be supporting a jihadi plan to wipe out non-Muslims from Jammu & Kashmir so as weaken the State’s relationship with the rest of India.
(The accompanying visual is of policemen chasing protesters in Kishtwar in Jammu, on August 10. AP photo by Chhani Anand)