Psalm E Pakistan

The climax of the movie border always leaves a warm fuzzy hangover. Though it’s about a war, the song at the end does make you feel that the war was a mistake and both of us have so much more to worry about than fighting over boundaries or anything for that matter. I was always interested in Pakistan, and writing about Pakistan. Any Indian or Pakistani of the Present day or at least the youth would have strong feelings about the whole partition of India episode. Some objective and some perspective, but all of us have views, bends, feelings and a stance. 

India was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement in the 50s and 60s while the USA and the USSR were busy making pacts and treaties to make their respective power blocs bigger and stronger. Now one might say the Non-Aligned Movement was started by poor or the then 3^rd world nations because they just couldn’t risk supporting one and be the target of the other’s fury. As it is, the Non-Aligned Movement is based on a bigger idea. Its about Believing that it is possible to remain neutral at any time by anyone. And being an advocate of being objective I support this theory and hence have always held an objective view over Pakistan. 

A few months ago, say 2 or 3 maybe I picked up Shashi Tharoor’s Pax Indica. It basically talks about India’s foreign policies, foreign relations and India’s place on a global setup. He spoke extensively about Pakistan and India. The chapter was rightly caller Brother Enemy. Pakistan is after all born out of India and the people are more or less Indian. They always have. 

Mr. Tharoor speaks of partition, Kashmir, the different wars we’ve had and finally talks emphatically about terrorism. His points are straight and precise, and so yet sensitively carved live the curves of Megan fox. (Sorry whenever someone says curve I think of her :D)

He talks at length about the gaps between the INTELLIGENCE and the civilian government of Pakistan. Its a known fact that the INTELLIGENCE is sitting on tones of cash. In fact the INTELLIGENCE gets almost or more than half the total budget of 1 fiscal year. So in a situation where there is a serious lack of schools, hospitals, or in general amenities of life the army and INTELLIGENCE suck all the money out of the people of Pakistan. The army isn’t too keen on listening to the will of the civilian govt. and caters to its own goals, which may not always be intended at the best of India, and in turn resulting in the bad of Pakistan it self.

I was torn in half when I read these. Of course I knew that the army or Pakistan and the civilian govt. don’t always see eye to eye, but the revelation of the fact that the govt has limited hold on the army did raise my brows, like my eye brows was one with my hair.

Another question boiled into me was who’s gonna tend to the people?  The politicians made a lot of noise and puffed up the people that theres a need to end Musharraf’s rein as president and there a need for proper democracy and what not. So the people did get excited and come out on streets and after a lot of crazy things (beyond my comprehension) there were elections and Muhammad Mian Soomro was elected president.  And after Benazir Bhutto’s murder, the PPP was elected to power and Asif Ali Zardari became the President. All this is fine but what are these people doing? 

Pakistani people are still struggling against the terrorists, there are criminals hiding in Pakistan thanks to the INTELLIGENCE’s invitation and reformers and socially responsible civilians are killed in broad day light.  And if you’ve been complaining about the raise of fuel prices in India, the fuel price is way over a hundred rupees in Pakistan, and its gets worse, price determination happens every week! 

So is the democracy drama and all the things these politicians did to overthrow Musharraf an eye wash? I asked my Pakistani Orkut friend of 3 years. 

Yes! 

The one answer with an exclamation mark was like a gun shot at point black.

He went on to say, 

Things were very good in Musharraf regime, call him a dictator or whatever you want to but he is the man who supported freedom of media. Even pak's economy was boosting. And now things are pathetic. You know, he was the one who set Pak before Islam. That’s what a country needs. 

It felt nice to listen to him. I probed more and asked,

Ok what do see for Pakistan in the Future?

I can not say anything here. If you see the history of pak, there have been some good times. But when they start building up they falter somewhere. so I can only hope that future is bright; which is only possible by imparting proper education. There is a dearth of rationality among masses and one simply CANNOT understand religion without education. Thats my opinion yours can differ obviously.

I definitely had no reason to differ there. I was also stunned at his strong emphasis on improving education. I liked that. I had never spoken much about national politics with this guy. It had always been about Harry Potter and cricket. Except one odd day when he’d told me he wanted to be a computer engineer. 

So I bit the bullet and finally threw a tough ball at him. 

Me:

cool... one big question thats really been eating me

your cool right?

He:

haha

yeah

Me:

yeah.. so

the question is

how does one remain patriotic and try not to be ashamed of his country and not choose to make rash decisions when there are so many figures pointing mistakes from outside and so little action been taken from those responsible?

He:

thats a tough one

and mature people here in pak do think about that

Me:

but good question right? ive been thinking a lot

He:

yeah good question!

but majority satisfies itself by conspiracy theories

it may sound weird to you

but majority here thinks that all these nations are anti Islam

anti pakistan

and that is the reason why all this blame game is being played

Me:

some ppl get high on substance.. some on religion

He:

true

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It was really something. It gives a lot for the Brain and Heart when there are people thinking and acting like this guy. The teenager Malala is a example. She’s another example of the youth wanting rights and education for their people. She was a strong, neutral voice talking of the truth and that offended many a bad man. Too bad the system just won’t let such people run the country. It also reminds me of a beautiful video featuring mid/high school girls from Pakistan talking about how they really feel and how they are made to feel about the Indo-Pak relations.

Rounding up this post, I’m not going make comments on the partition of India or the numerous wars or other difference India has had with Pakistan because this was never a political write, the post was aimed at talking about the people in Pakistan. (I don’t know if they call themselves aam janta :D) I wanted to say that we need empathize with the people of Pakistan. On the one side there is the adamant army and intelligence with its own agenda (no one knows what the army wants) and on the other side there is the helpless civilian govt and politicians fishing for power and money. In this quarrel... what’s to happen of the people of Pakistan? Does anyone care about the people anymore?

 

Kill Better Than Cure

A fortnight before his 25^th Birthday, Kasab is hit by the news of his Death Sentence being upheld by the Supreme Court of India. Ajmal Kasab was the only one to be caught alive of the 10 member terrorist group who spray painted Mumbai in blood. This attack not only made us aware of what terrorists can do but also raised serious question on the Homeland Security of India. An act of waging war resulted in a Death Penalty for the only serving disoriented youth turned jihadi born in Pakistan.  

 This was more than well received by the people of India. The country rejoiced as it finally became apparent that India is ready to deliver harsh punishments to those who pose threat to the integrity of this great land. The Economist once said that the 26/11 trial will be a test of the Indian judiciary and the resolve of the people of India; if they meant pronouncing a death sentence as the great test then we have passed. People of India majorly have also accepted and applauded the SC’s call. People like Raj Thakare have even gone so far as to distribute sweets and call it a day of celebration. And in a country as democratic as India there are people who opposed the death sentence. 

Not surprisingly, there are NGO’s, activists, past court judges, and the so called intellectuals who are against the death penalty. Firstpost made an informative post that meandered about the idea of death penalty. It spoke of how India is one among the few nations that still administer execution as a punishment. At the same time the post also spoke of how difficult it is to kill convicts. The stats said that in the past 17 years only 1 convict has been executed while there are still more than 300 convicts on the death roll. 

All this is fine. Facts, numbers and stories speak the truth. India is weak in killing people, It does take a long time for our courts to move cases and we really have spent more than 50 crores for Kasab’s super security jail where he ate Biriyani twice a day. But what of him??

It’s very true that he is a terrorist who attacked India and all that is Indian, and we have spent a lot of money on him, he has stayed in jails for almost 4 years and had ‘Biriyani’. But does that mean he wanted this? Can you imagine how it must be to be caught in a prison was something like a terrorist attack? Receiving all those methods of physical and mental torture in the prisons (which of course doesn’t come out in the media) being disowned by his country, his parents and everything that he considered his must have played something on his head. How must it feel when no one knows what you feel inside and then come out and make comments, rejoice and celebrate something about you without knowing how you’ve felt. 

It reminds me of my placement season in college. The placements were in full force. Companies kept flying in every day and almost everyone in the college had at least 1 job offer by the end of the first month. As the second and third months rolled on, my close friends, not so close ones, everyone had a job and some 2 or 3, but I had nothing in hand, I hadn’t even been able to attend interviews thanks to my root burrowing marks.  Depression, deprivation, lowliness, loneliness and a few other ness-es crowded my life and I was a walking dead in a world full of opportunities. And finally at the fag end of the placement season, I found a job that suited me and incidentally it was the first company to announce the joining date. As months passed and everyone had joined work, we met once at college and everyone kept telling me how lucky I was to be the first one to start working, and how I ‘hit’ a jackpot in the end… well it wasn’t hard to smile at them but it was hard for me to tell them how much mental and emotional stress I had been in while they were boasting and toasting their placements oblivious to my sorrow. 

The same is what I saw when Veerappan, the Elephant Ivory and Sandalwood thief and the much feared dacoit in the woods of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was killed in an encounter with the Veerappan Special Task force in the October of 2004.  As the people of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu celebrated the death of the dacoit, his family and thousands of forest dwellers mourned his death. It is also reported that thousands of people were gathered for his funeral. And on the other side there were people like us rejoicing his death. I ask you here, is it so hard to stay neutral? Empathise a little, people like Veerappan or Kasab might be bad, but they’re humans too.

Coming to Kasab, in some interrogations, he has switched sides, and the police express their shock at this. It is reported that Kasab said that his operators offered money and security to his family, and if the India Police did the same, he was ready to work for them as well. There are also outcomes in the interrogations that suggest Kasab had noidea what was there in the Quran, on being asked about it, he only spoke of Jihad, and only a few high sounding lines at that. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kasab chose death over a painful half-life.

I’m not supporting Kasab, and I am definitely not against his death. I’m just saying kill him fast. Finish the cursed case. He might just be a juvenile well-meaning for his family, or he might be a deadly terrorist, but he wronged. And for this he must be punished. Kill him, but don’t keep his body and mind in a place where no one wants him, don’t let him go mad, don’t torture him with uncertainty. Give him death, not cruelty.