Imtiaz Gul
Indians at large claim greatness – largely because of the sheer size of their country’s economy and population . But they often act small when it comes to dealing with smaller neighbours.
They pretend not to bother about Pakistan as if it were a non-entity. But the Indian print and electronic media – which feeds off planted, motivated stories by officials – tells a different story; an insatiable obsession with Pakistan, reflected in the scores of stories spread across India’s media landscape.
The annual plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) held at Paris between October 21-23 as well as the sharp focus on Pakistan Democratic (PDM) rallies in Karachi and Quetta offered the latest examples of this Pakistan-obsession. Hundreds of stories – before, during and after the FATF meeting, including screaming and fuming anchors on various TV channels, left little doubt that Pakistan remains a subject of intense interest – at least among the Indian officials and their favourite media outlets.
Equally intense has been the interest in the PDM rallies, which also resulted in the professionally despicable “civil war in Karachi” fake news trend – generated somewhere in India and rooted in some old pictures involving police and rangers in Karachi.
Unmistakeable objective of the entire fake-news is rooted in what Ajit Doval, the Indian national security advisor, and Partha Sarthi, a former High Commissioner, had proposed during an October 2009 consultation for India Today magazine.
Here are some of the recommendations that the 12-member panel gave:
# Pakistan should be made to realise that it will have to pay a price for terrorist acts
# Covert and overt actions need to be essential ingredients of India’s policy.
# India must exploit fault lines within Pakistan.
# Pursue a policy of selective engagement with Pakistan on terrorism, but put composite dialogue into cold storage.
# Pakistan has problems in Afghanistan as well as Iran. These are options we need to work on. ”
# India has leverage in Balochistan and in some other parts of Pakistan. What we really need to convey to Pakistan is that if they commit a blatant anti-India act on the ground, a military act or otherwise, it will have to bear the repercussions.
Ajit Doval specifically spoke of Bangladesh when talking of how to deal with Pakistan; We secured Bangladesh and handed it over to them to run their own country. So that is one (option, alluding to Balochistan).
Unlike what the Indian government has done under Doval’s advice in Kashmir, Doval had during the India Today consultation, advocated dialogue with Pakistan over Kashmir. We want to have a dialogue over Kashmir and people in Pakistan should not worry about anything that the Indian Army will do, he had said.
No surprise therefore that the Indian media – fed by Doval and colleagues – are exploiting every single faultline within Pakistan; PTM, PDM rallies, FATF, Baloch grievances are all serving as the faultlines that the external forces may be exploiting. All that resonates at these rallies, rings as sweet music to ears in New Delhi, and may be also in Kabul.
The challenge for Pakistan therefore is to effectively deal with weaknesses within. That is the only way to repair faultiness and thus deflect attacks on Pakistan.
