My Friend, the Enemy

                                                                                                         My Friend, the Enemy

If Modi’s threat to suspend the Indus Basin Water Treaty has led Punjab and Sindh backing off from the water front, a letter of thanks to Delhi is absolutely in order. But that’s not the only favour our arch enemy has done to us. The enormity at Pahalgam has exploded many a myth. If the US is seen so supportive of India for its Chinese or any other reasons, let’s admit that the assumptions that our scrambling to Washington when Trump was elected or when he launched his Tariff wars would get us any relief were misplaced. About Israel’s support for India there never was any doubt. It’s our belief that by letting this rogue state pummel the Palestinians with active support of its allies would save us from ever being the next in line – for which we must be punished. The rest of the west till it’s liberated by Putin would continue to follow the Big Brother.

One could have given some benefit of doubt to those who continued to be under the illusion that come what may the Saudis would remain on our side. With the massive Indo-Saudi cooperation underway, we should again be grateful to the latest earthquake in the Himalayas for yet another fundamental lesson in realpolitik – nothing is forever. If the Bedouins couldn’t raise a little finger for the next-door Gazans, they were not likely to sacrifice billions of dollars’ worth of business for the sake of a country that can be bought back for a pittance.

Does it really matter who did Pahalgam! If the intent was to put Pakistan in the crosswires, history of false flag operations all the way to Ganga hijacking was not coming in the way. Nuclear capability is a good deterrence but has its limitations and implications. The most effective factor that keeps an aggressor at bay is the credibility of our response, which in turn requires a national resolve. If that evolved, we couldn’t care less if there was a war or not – it would help us either way. Our current civil-military hybrid on the other hand has been the most divisive in the last seven decades.

Political divide is inherent in the system, but what had rarely happened was that all the federating units have one grievance or the other against the central government. The imminent water war may right now be on hold but the issue is age old. Baluchistan imbroglio too may have started decades back but under the present government it has acquired critical dimensions. KP at one stage seemed to have a greater stake in the country than the ruling Punjabis. Now it’s not only the politics and the PDM, but also an active insurgency that has created fissures. And just in case, GB was getting quasi mainstreamed, a powerful foreign presence, in pursuit of real or imaginary minerals, threatens to destabilise the calm within, and spilling over the consequences into China. And that reminds me of the deepest self-inflicted wound that has upended a balance long kept despite some major global upheavals. You may like or dislike the Afghans but they not only provided us flank protection in our wars against India, but because of their stakes in Pakistan could always be counted upon to contribute to regional amity. Can’t believe that we asked them, always infatuated with weapons, to return the arms and ammunition to a country that incidentally is back to mend fences. Alienating neighbours and reaching out to the distant courtesans, who had an unbroken record of infidelity, reminds me of the legend of a snake bitten man – he returns on every full moon to get another prick.

But then this is the only regime that we have right now – and the only platform around which we can build a united front. So, let’s line up behind Asim Munir and Shahbaz Sharif provided they can reconciliate our countrymen from all the nooks and corners of the country and stop proclaiming that they were the cat’s whiskers on every subject. After the crisis is behind us, we’ll ask them to get rid of the hitmen and hang the agent’s provocateur. But till then they can count upon our sincerest support.

And BTW; don’t you ever believe that this enlightened elite would stand shoulder to shoulder when the Indians came all guns blazing. I remember many of them praying that the Kashmiri uprising could be nipped in the bud before it caused must discomfiture to their lifestyle. Madrasa students would fight even armed with sticks and stones.

And for heaven’s sake stop spreading the propaganda of our ill-wishers. Put up a united front in the field, which is the best way to win a hybrid war. And if still not fed up with the Afghans, please remember that those of them who united against an external aggressor, always won.

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