I write for the dna on the latest set of be headings, and the nature of the relationship between India  Pakistan. A shorter version appears in the papers\.

 

It is one more attack on India. Two more soldiers killed, and their bodies mutilated. A brutal, vicious act, by all reckoning carried out by the Pakistan Border Action Team. It is not the first time that Indian soldiers have been killed, and their bodies mutilated and desecrated, by Pakistani forces. Killing soldiers when you are not at war, and officially we are not, is possibly an act of war. Last year 60 Indian soldiers lost their life on the border with Pakistan. But, it is not just about unprovoked shelling and deaths. It is also the way bodies are desecrated, and human heads are taken as the spoils of war, that is a violation of the Geneva Convention, and a war crime.

Between Kargil (1999) and now, Indian soldiers been tortured,  killed, desecrated, mutilated. We have all read about Captain Saurabh Kalia, and the way he was tortured and murdered. The following year, Ilyas Kashmiri, the Al Qaeda commander, took back the head of Jawan Bhausaheb Maruti Talekar back to Pakistan, supposedly as a gift for President Musharraf.  Then, it was all relatively less barbaric on the western front till 2008 – when a soldier who lost his way, was captured, and his headless body left behind. There was a lull in more decapitations, though the deaths continued, till 2013 when Lance Naik Hemraj was beheaded by the Pakistanis. Border Action Team. Then last year, there were two beheadings, and this year two more.

Pakistan, of course and as always, had denied all involvement. And, always, it manages to portray itself as the ‘victim of terror’ while glossing over the fact, that the terrorists are nurtured on their territory, by their largesse. India is 8^th on the list of countries impacted by terrorism, as per the Global Terrorism Index, 2016, with Pakistan being the primary contributor to that number. Pakistan is number 4 on that same list – and it’s  tragedy is that it caused by people nurtured by the various splinters within the Pakistani ruling ecosystem, and supported by their armed forces.

Western powers, somehow believe that Pakistan plays a vital role in curtailing terror, and Pakistan has been a key ally on the ‘war on terror’. And, it is geopolitically convenient to do this, while ignoring the fact that if you nurture a bunch of very venomous snakes, they are going to bite you. This is true of Pakistan and terror; just as true with the west and Pakistan. Since 9/11, the world at large, has seen what India had been experiencing since Independence. The involvement of Pakistanis in acts of terror on their soil.  The west is lucky, because geographically Pakistan is not next to them. However, the acts of terror by people of Pakistani origin have brought the problem up front and close to the west.  India is stuck in an unfortunate space. We cannot change our neighbour, nor can we change our neighbourhood.

The question therefore is what does India do? At a very basic level, politicians of all hues and shades have to give up the ghost of ‘we are all one people” and forget our historical links. They have to stop trying to bend over backwards to achieve peace in our times. Pakistan does not want peace India. It has never wanted peace with India. The persona that has been created by the Generals and that has permeated to every aspect of civil society, is not being India, rejecting the past; and warping what little is acknowledged as a machine to foment hate towards India. The belief that successive Indian governments have, that the people like us, but the Government is against us, is not just naïve, but also a reading of the situation that is harmful for India and Indian interests.   70 years of indoctrination has moved the situation beyond redemption. There will be no peace in our times. The best we can hope for, is no war.

Finally, the Government of India needs to stop wanting to be liked by the world at large. Our foreign policy has traditionally been driven by a certain self-image, which is nice and cuddly teddy bear, a friend to the world. The Government of India needs to stop wanting to be liked, or seeking international approval, vis-à-vis it’s relationship with   Pakistan. It is only when India acts in it’s self-interest, without worrying about what the world at large will think about us, in our dealings with Pakistan, will there be some cessation of violence from our neighbour.