It just never ends. Our people are being killed every day by Pakistan-sponsored jihadis in J&K, arms and drugs are being smuggled incessantly into Punjab and rest of the country, Pakistan-linked terror cells are busted ever so often, ISI-backed stooges based in the West are doing their all to reignite the flames of Khalistani terror, and all the while Pakistan continues to spew poisonous lies about us at every international forum.
Yet, the cabal of self-serving, disgraceful knaves who dominate the secular Indian state’s foreign policy establishment continues to bat for talks with a discredited terrorist state like Pakistan. The latest bout of this verbal diarrhea has come about after Imran Khan was replaced with Shehbaz Sharif as Pakistan’s PM after the former lost the confidence of the ultimate decision-maker in Pakistan’s dysfunctional ‘democracy’, its military.
Sharif has adopted the usual fork-tongued approach of Pakistani leadership – on the one hand, repeating the same propaganda about Bharat ‘oppressing’ Muslims and minorities that Imran Khan so virulently spread; and begging for resumption of talks and trade on the other. And the Indian media is just lapping it all up.
Right on cue, our policy ‘experts’ and think tank crowd has started exploring the pathway to talks and lasting peace. While every public figure in Pakistan – including washed-up, semi-literate cricketers like Shahid Afridi – spews venom about our PM, the Indian media is running puff pieces for the corruption-embroiled, dynastic, polygamous Pakistani PM.
Both nations are currently in a state of semi-detachment. They still maintain diplomatic relations with each other, but there hasn’t been any substantive bilateral engagement since December 2015 when they launched the comprehensive bilateral dialogue process which was cut short due to the the Pathankot airbase terror attack.
Why PM Modi decided to make overtures towards Pakistan and start a bilateral dialogue, after being elected on an unyielding national security plank, is another matter. It reflects the total lack of a consistent, long-term national vision and security doctrine, and the mentally colonized, appeasement-first approach of our policy establishment which remains the same irrespective of governments.
Indeed, Pakistan has shown far-greater policy coherence and long-term commitment to its nefarious goals. In the aftermath of the revocation of Article 370 in J&K, Pakistan decided to downgrade its diplomatic relations with us! They expelled the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, snapped all air and land links, and suspended trade and railway services.
Pakistan has been playing smokes and mirrors on all core issues for decades now, i.e. punishing terror masterminds like the 26/11 conspirators, eradicating of terror factories operating on its soil under patronage of its Army and ISI, and an end to the terror-drug-arms cartels and sleeper cells it is running across Bharat as part of its perpetual war and Ghazwa-e-Hind ideology.
So why does our bureaucratic, policy-making and ex-military class continue to humor this duplicitous terror state? Sadly, even voices who claim to represent a new idea of India are not immune to this crippling mental disease of putting economy and trade above national/civilizational goals.
Nothing has changed with regards to Pakistan, and nothing ever will until the fundamental Islamic supremacism and hate for ‘kafir’ Hindus which lies at its heart is eradicated. We need to stop wasting our time and energy on this periodical game of freeze-thaw-bonhomie with Pakistan, which is controlled and calibrated by Pakistan. They turn the terror tap off and on depending on their geopolitical needs, but the end goal, the ‘war to the end‘ against us that the Pakistani military-mullah complex lives and breathes, remains unchanged.
The only logical response is to cut ties with Pakistan, put bilateral relations in a deep freeze, focus on strengthening our economy and military while isolating Pakistan internationally. This is what this portal has argued consistently since it was launched in 2016.
Pakistan is currently facing acute economic distress and even its old partners in the Middle East are giving it the cold shoulder. And our policy makers want us to help this enemy nation at such a critical juncture?
Here, I am not even bringing up the issue of the ongoing slow genocide of Pakistani Hindus, the most heart-wrenching aspect of which is the abduction, forced conversion and sex slavery of minor Hindu girls. That alone is reason enough to totally isolate that vile nation until it mends its ways and grants basic human rights to its minorities. That issue simply doesn’t register with our policy wonks, including the alleged hawks like Brahma Chellaney, probably because it is considered ‘communal’.
Our Anglicized policy and media elites who keep chattering about the inevitability of talks with Pakistan, have been silently toeing the Western line on the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Not one of them has spoken up strongly against the American bullying of Bharat, or the ridiculous extent to which the West has taken their total boycott of Russia. The Indian-origin American commentator Sadanand Dhume thinks India is ‘arrogant’ for not trading with Pakistan. After all, in Dhume’s worldview, what’s a few Indians killed every week by Pak-backed terrorists? But USA is justified in going hammer and tongs against a Russia which does not threaten the US homeland in any way!
Modi would do well to not fall for the undoing of so many past Indian leaders – the desire to leave a legacy, to ‘bring peace’ to the sub-continent. We are a 5000-year-old civilization, at the very least. We deserve a leadership that can take a long-term view of issues, beyond the next election cycle or their lifetimes.
