The real battle-ground is Pakistan as a whole!
" The real battle-ground is Pakistan as a whole", observed Shuja Nawaz, director,South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council, in the above report in your weekly (India Abroad,May 8). How true indeed! It is a situation which has been created by Pakistaini rulers – the army and the elite. After 60 yeas of Independence, Pakistan is still to find a purpose for itself other than Kashmir. Pakistan has been fighting with India for Kashmir ever since its inception – 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1998. During the interval it has been fighting through other means – diplomacy. Its leaders have declared thousand years war on India and have inflicted thousand cuts and have said, ' we will eat grass but have our atom bomb' etc. They created Taliban , with some help from USA, to take over Afghanistan from the Soviet Union and then to unleash it in Kashmir. Now Taliban has become a Frankenstein.
This obsession with Kashmir is diminishing its potential as a great nation just as the obsession of the Soviet Union to 'bury' capitalism diminished its potential. Soviet Union changed when its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev realized the futility of fighting capitalism neglecting the welfare of its citizens. He called for glasnost (openness), perestroika ( restructuring ), demokratizatsiya ( democratization ) and uskoreniye ( acceleration of economic development ). Rest is history. Pakistan will be become great when its leaders realize the futility of fighting with India instead of promoting the welfare of its citizens. But, alas, there is no Gorbachev in sight in Pakistan.
May 6,2009.
*****
