Sham Trial of Jadhav: Reticence is no Sagacity

Sham Trial of Jadhav: Reticence is no Sagacity  

Major General Mrinal Suman

Abducted Indian Kulbhushan Jadhav has been declared a spy and sentenced to death by a kangaroo court in a farcical trial held in complete secrecy. True to its past track record, Pakistan remains incorrigible as a devious and antagonistic neighbour.

It is India’s great misfortune that it has been cursed with a neighbour like Pakistan. A nation born out of hatred needs hatred for its continued sustenance. The day Pakistan sheds hostility towards India and adopts a conciliatory stance, it would amount to negating the two-nation theory, the raison d'être for its very existence. Therefore, it will be naïve to expect Pakistan to have a change of heart and be friends with India.

Independent Pakistan started its track record with the betrayal of Kashmir. Thereafter, breaching undertakings given to the US, it surreptitiously used American equipment to launch a surprise attack on Kutch in April 1965. Under the Tashkent agreement, Pakistan gave an undertaking to adhere to the principles of non-interference, only to intensify the proxy war through its notorious secret agencies.

Bhutto gave a solemn undertaking to accept LOC as the de facto border. Instead of abiding by his word, Pakistan redoubled its efforts to create turmoil in India. While the Indian leadership was trying to break ice through the ‘bus diplomacy’ in 1998-99, Pakistani military brass was busy planning the notorious Kargil incursion. Modi’s out-of-the-box gesture of birthday stop-over at Lahore was followed by a fierce terrorist strike at the Pathankot airfield. It has been a saga of treachery and duplicity.

Due to decades of indoctrination and brainwashing, most Pakistanis suffer from an extremely brutal and vicious anti-Indian streak. While dealing with India, a strange sadistic instinct gets aroused that takes control of their behaviour. The treatment meted out to the patrol led by Lt Saurabh Kalia in May 1999 by the Pakistan army puts even barbarians and animals to shame for its sheer cruelty. Contravening all conventions and norms of humanity, they were subjected to brutal torture for 22 days and then shot dead.  

The venom of anti-India feeling is too deeply ingrained in Pak psyche. Pakistan has made India the whipping boy for all its ills. Anti-India propaganda goes to the ridiculous extent of accusing India of extracting electricity from the river waters flowing in to Pakistan, ‘thereby rendering the waters worthless’.

Even a casual visitor to Pak websites and blogs gets shocked to see the venality of comments against India. There is hardly a sane voice that advocates need to promote amity. Anti-India feelings are so pervasive that the whole country lauded the Pak cricket team for conspiring to lose a cricket match during the World Cup to ensure India’s elimination. It reveals sickening depths to which Pakistan can stoop to in its pursuit of anti-India mania.

‘Be patient with a bad neighbour: he may move out’ is a common proverb. Unfortunately, such hopes cannot be entertained with respect to a malevolent neighbouring country. The only way out is its breakup and that is what India should strive for.

Raising of the Balochistan issue was overdue. If Pakistan can cultivate a Kashmiri separatist constituency within India, India can cultivate a separatist Baloch constituency in Pakistan. If Pakistan can dedicate its Independence Day to Kashmir, India can dedicate its Independence Day to Balochistan, Gilgit, Baltistan, and PoK. India should also support independence of other provinces like Sind. Pakistan must be splintered into as many countries as possible.

In addition, India should intensify its efforts to isolate Pakistan internationally. It should not be major challenge as Pakistan has already acquired notoriety as the prime breeding ground of terrorism in the world. Pakistanis are looked at with suspicion the world over.

To start with, diplomatic relations should be downgraded. All concessions like MFN should be withdrawn. Rail and road contacts should be suspended. Cultural exchanges should be stopped. Regional forums like SAARC will be better off without Pakistan. Using its formidable influence, India should have Pakistan expelled from the cricketing world. If South Africa could be debarred for apartheid, why should Pakistan not be banned for promoting terrorism? As cricket is a national obsession, it will hit Pakistani psyche hard.

A proactive policy should be followed to make friends with the countries who feel threatened by the growth of terrorism in Pakistan. Simultaneously, leveraging its enormous economic clout, India must convey its displeasure to countries that help Pakistan pass anti-India resolutions in various comities of nations. No nation that supports Pakistan’s anti-Indian motions can claim to be India’s friend.  It is time India asserts itself.

Unfortunately, a section of Indian intelligentsia continues to claim that a united Pakistan is in India’s interests. These biryani-lapping lapdogs of Pakistan advise India not to mix politics with culture, art and cricket. They echo Pak stance to mislead the Indian public. In their quest to please the Pakistani masters, they deliberately ignore the fact that Pakistan is not playing politics but waging an open war against India and killing Indians. But then, treachery of self-serving citizens has been the bane of India for centuries.

Finally, like a cancerous tumour, hatred for India has made deep inroads into Pakistan’s national psyche and has been devouring its vitals. In its obsession to harm India, Pakistan has chosen the path of self-destruction. It is in India’s interest to expedite the process by triggering the required implosion.

Pakistan cannot be allowed to get away with the sham trial of Jadhav. It is a defining moment for India and the government cannot fail the nation. The only language that rogue countries like Pakistan understand is of strength and retribution. In world affairs, reticence is considered a sign of impotence and not sagacity.